Religious Accommodations – What Do Employers Have To Do?

According to the law,

“It is unlawful to discharge or otherwise discriminate against or harass applicants or employees on the basis of religion.”

Employers must provide reasonable accommodation for an employee’s religious beliefs or practices, unless it would cause the employer an undue hardship.

The federal law Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits religious discrimination by employers with 15 or more employees.

Furthermore, employers may not discriminate against an individual based on his or her association with a person of a particular religion. For example, it is unlawful to discriminate against an employee who is a Christian because s/he is married to a Muslim.

Title VII does permit religious corporations, associations, educational institutions, or societies to hire only individuals of a particular religion to perform work connected with the organization’s activities. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines, religious practices include traditional religious beliefs, moral and ethical beliefs, and beliefs (including atheism) that individuals hold “with the strength of traditional religious views.”

According to EEOC, religion typically includes ultimate ideas about “life, purpose, and death.” Requests for religious accommodations can be challenging for employers, below are suggestions to help companies reduce the risk of being accused of refusing to accommodate.

1. Tell your employees you will make reasonable efforts to accommodate their beliefs.
2. Provide a policy statement in your handbook and instructions when asking for a religious accommodation.
3. Train managers on how to handle requests for religious accommodations.
4. Do not assume you know what is and is not a religious  belief or practice. 
5. Do not have inflexible requirements for information to determine whether an accommodation is necessary for a religious belief or practice.
6. Consider adopting flexible leave and scheduling policies.
7. Carefully evaluate requests for exceptions to dress and grooming rules for religious reasons.
8. Allow workplace facilities to be used in the same manner for religious and nonreligious activities (i.e., Praying in the conference room)
9. If you refuse a religious accommodation, explain to the employee why it was not granted.

Ways employers can provide a reasonable religious accommodation:

1. Flexible arrival and departure times.
2. Floating holidays.
3. Flexible work breaks.
4. Substituting workers.
5. Exchanging employee hours.
6. Transferring employees.
7. Changing job assignments.
8. Voluntary substitutions.

References: BLR Daily: Religious Accommodation Requests–Deal Delicately, But Deal & Religious Accommodation Q & A — Undue Hardship, Dress, Holidays