Kentucky Employment Law Blog

Religious Discrimination and Accommodation: How Much Religious Practice Is An Employee Required to Give Up?

Title VII prohibits employment discrimination on account of religion and requires employers to reasonably accommodate its employees' religious practices unless doing so would impose an undue hardship. So where job duties and religious practice conflict there is some give-and-take: both employer and employee are required to cooperate reasonably to work out an accommodation acceptable to both. Does this require the employee to give up part of his or her religious practice? "No" the Sixth Circuit answered this question recently in Crider v University of Tennessee, No 11-5511 (July 23, 2012). 

Crider, a Seventh Day Adventist whose religious practice prohibits her from working from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, was hired by UT as a Programs Abroad Coordinator in its study abroad program. Part of her job duties included monitoring on a rotating basis with other coordinators an emergency cell phone that students studying abroad could call in case of emergency.  Crider informed UT that she could not perform this duty from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday because it conflicted with her religious practice. UT suggested that she agree to monitor on weekends only some of the time, like "in an emergency situation or when the other two coordinators were out of town." Crider declined this suggestion and she was eventually  terminated. She filed suit claiming religious discrimination; a district court granted summary judgment to UT but the Sixth Circuit reversed.

UT argued on appeal that it had attempted to reasonably accommodate Crider's religious practice by suggesting that she be responsible for monitoring the cell phone on weekends only in emergency situations or when the other coordinators were out of town; it was Crider who was being unreasonable UT argued because she would not compromise her religious practice even this little bit. The Sixth Circuit had none of this argument and rejected it pointedly:

Although the employee is obligated to cooperate with an employer's attempt at accommodation, cooperation is not synonymous with compromise, where such compromise would be in violation of the employees' religious needs. Offering Crider fewer Saturday shifts is not a reasonable accommodation to religious beliefs which prohibit working on Saturdays. 

Robert L. Abell
www.RobertAbellLaw.com 

 

Religious Discrimination Compliance Manual Issued By EEOC

Federal and Kentucky state law prohibit covered employers, employment agencies, and unions from: (1) treating applicants or employees differently based on their religious beliefs or practices – or lack thereof – in any aspect of employment, including recruitment, hiring, assignments, discipline, promotion, and benefits; (2) subjecting employees to harassment because of their religious beliefs or practices – or lack thereof – or because of the religious practices or beliefs of people with whom they associate; (3) denying a requested reasonable accommodation of an applicant’s or employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs or practices – or lack thereof – if an accommodation will not impose an undue hardship on the conduct of the business;17 and, (4) retaliating against an applicant or employee who has engaged in protected activity, including participation (e.g., filing an EEO charge or testifying as a witness in someone else’s EEO matter), or opposition relating to alleged religious discrimination (e.g., complaining to human resources department about alleged religious discrimination).  Charges of religious discrimination made with the EEOC have more than doubled since 1992.  It has recently issued a new guidance manual that can be found here. 

Robert L. Abell
www.RobertAbellLaw.com