Managing Religious Issues in the
Workplace – Supervisor Briefing
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Question
Amelia, the president of Acme
Communications, is extremely religious and
gives Rachel the worst job duties and tasks
for not participating in daily prayer sessions
as well as other religious activities in the
workplace. Is this lawful?
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Answer
No. An employer is not allowed to
treat acceptance of religion or
participation in religious rituals as a
term and condition of employment
and make Rachel’s job dependent on
it.
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Objectives of This Briefing
This supervisor briefing examines the
best practices for managing religious
issues in the workplace. The topics
covered include:
1. Legal Background
2. Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation
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Objectives of This Briefing
(con’t.)
3. Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices
4. Types of Religious Accommodations
5. Best Practices for Supervisors
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Legal Background
• Federal law under Title VII as well as
many state and local laws prohibit
employers from discriminating against
employees and applicants based upon
their religious beliefs.
• These laws protect an individual’s right to
observe and practice their religion as
well as the right to be free from religious
practice.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
Discrimination
An employer may not take an adverse
employment action or otherwise
discriminate against an applicant or
employee based on his or her religious
beliefs, practice or requests for
accommodation.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
The following qualifies as an adverse
employment action:
• Failure to hire;
• Demotion;
• Discipline;
• Termination;
• Change in pay or benefits; and
• Change in terms or conditions of
employment.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
Employees and applicants cannot be
required to participate in a religious activity
or adopt, abandon or alter a religious
practice as a condition of employment.
Example: A supervisor is not allowed to
require employees pray during meetings.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
Employees and applicants also cannot be
required to refrain from participating in
religious activity as a condition of
employment.
Example: A supervisor may not require
employees who pray 5 times a day to refrain
from prayer during working hours.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
Harassment
• Harassment based on religion involves
hostility directed towards an
individual based on religious beliefs
and expression.
• The harassing conduct may be against
a religious person or by religious
person.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
Religious harassment may consist of:
• Statements expressing offensive religious
opinions;
• Unwanted or offensive proselytizing;
• Religiously offensive jokes pranks; or
• Stereotyping individuals based on their
religion.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
A supervisor should take all steps to
address individuals who are subject to
severe or pervasive unwelcome
statements or conduct based on
religion that creates a hostile working
environment.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
A supervisor should be proactive and
take action if on notice of harassing
conduct either by individuals
practicing religion or by others against
the individual practicing religion.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
Employees who are recipients of
unwelcome religious conduct should
report it to supervisors in accordance
with the company’s harassment
procedures.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
Retaliation
A supervisor may not retaliate against
those who assert their rights under
Title VII or state and local
antidiscrimination laws.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
This means that a supervisor may not
take an adverse action against an
individual asserting his or her religious
rights in the form of requesting a
religious accommodation or
complaining about or filing a claim of
religious discrimination or failure to
accommodate.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
Reasonable Accommodation
Employers are also required to provide
reasonable accommodations (such as
schedule changes or modified workplace
policies) to individuals to resolve conflicts
between an individual’s sincerely held
religious beliefs and a work rule or condition
of employment unless doing so would cause
an undue hardship for the employer.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
• An employer may establish an undue
hardship by showing that the requested
accommodation poses a more than de
minimis cost or burden on the
employer’s business operations.
• An undue hardship may be a health,
safety, or security concern or a violation
of a collective bargaining agreement.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
What Types of Religious Beliefs are Protected?
• Title VII and most state and local laws
defines religion broadly.
• Protection for religious worship
encompasses membership or affiliation with
major organized religions such as
Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hindu but also
religious beliefs that are not widely known,
that are new and have not achieved broad
acceptance in society.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
Religious beliefs do not need to have a
concept of god or gods, Supreme
Being or after life.
Therefore, atheists who follow a creed
may be able to claim that is their
religion.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
• Creed: A system of religious beliefs,
including moral or ethical beliefs about
right and wrong that is sincerely held
with the strength of religious views.
• However, protection for religion does not
protect an individual’s personal
preferences rooted in culture, heritage or
politics.
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Tip
An employer should not immediately
assume that an employee’s religious
beliefs are not protected if it is not
familiar with them. Courts have found
that a belief in veganism may qualify
as a religious belief.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
What Does It Mean To Be Sincerely Held?
In order to be protected under Title VII
as well as many state laws, a belief
must be sincere.
Therefore, an employer only needs to
accommodate the needs of individuals
with sincerely held beliefs.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
The following factors may be considered in
evaluating the sincerity of a religious belief:
• Whether the individual behaves in a
manner markedly inconsistent with the
professed belief;
• Whether the accommodation sought is a
particularly desirable benefit likely to be
sought for non-religious reasons;
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Legal Background (con’t.)
• Whether the timing of the request
renders it suspect (e.g., it follows an
earlier request by the individual for the
same benefit for non-religious reasons);
and
• Whether the employer otherwise has
reason to believe the accommodation
was not sought for religious reasons.
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Legal Background (con’t.)
An observance of a religious practice can
be sincerely held even if it is recently
adopted by an individual.
Further, the fact that an individual
follows a religious practice only on
certain days or at certain times of the
year, does not make the belief insincere.
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Did You Know?
A religious belief can be sincerely held
even if an individual recently adopted
it and started following it. The fact
that an individual has not followed a
belief before does not undermine its
sincerity.
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation
Implement Policies
A supervisor should be sure to enforce an
employer’s policies prohibiting
discrimination, harassment and
retaliation based on religion.
A policy prohibiting religious
discrimination/harassment should
include the following:
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Description of prohibited behavior;
Well established multi-channel complaint
procedure;
Protections for those who report retaliation;
Assurance of confidence and will only
disclose on need to know basis;
A statement that the employer will follow
up with investigation; and
Remedial measures.
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Tip
The employer’s policy prohibiting
religious discrimination, harassment
and retaliation as well as providing
reasonable accommodations based on
religion should be made part of the
employee handbook.
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
Make Proper Employment Decisions
A supervisor should make sure to use
written objective criteria when
evaluating applicants for employment
or employees and make sure to apply
criteria consistently.
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
• All employment-related decisions
should be based on merit, skills and
qualifications.
• All employment-related as well as
discipline-related decisions should be
carefully recorded and businessrelated reasons documented for later
reference.
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
Train Employees
Supervisors should be sure to provide
training to employees on all aspects of
religious discrimination as well as the
employers’ policies prohibiting
discrimination, harassment and
retaliation based on religion.
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
Supervisors should incorporate a
discussion of religious expression, and
the need for all employees to be
sensitive to the beliefs or non-beliefs
of others, into any antiharassment
training.
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
Address Complaints of Religious Bias
All complaints of religious
discrimination, religious harassment,
and retaliation based on religion or
failure to accommodate should be
immediately brought to the attention
of the employer or HR.
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
• A thorough investigation should be
conducted by gathering relevant
documents and evidence and
interviewing the complainant, the
alleged perpetrator and any potential
witnesses.
• All steps taken in the investigation
should be carefully documented.
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
•
It may be necessary to implement
interim measures such as separating
the complainant and the alleged
perpetrator.
• The complainant’s complaint should
be kept confidential if at all possible
and disclosed only on a need-to-know
basis.
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
• The complainant should be assured
that he or she will not face
retaliation for bringing a complaint.
• Discipline should be imposed for
violations.
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
Avoid Retaliation
• Employees who engage in protected
activity should be protected from
retaliation.
• An employee's complaint or opposition
to an employer's or supervisor’s unlawful
discrimination or harassment constitutes
protected activity.
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
Opposition is protected as long as the
employee had a reasonable, goodfaith belief that the employer's actions
amounted to discrimination or
harassment; and opposed the
employer's action in a reasonable
manner.
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
Examples of protected activity include:
• Filing a charge of discrimination with the
appropriate government agency;
• Cooperating with an investigation of
discrimination;
• Testifying as a witness at an EEOC
hearing;
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
•
•
•
•
Requesting a reasonable accommodation
based on religion;
Having a reasonable belief that the action
complained about constitutes
discrimination;
Making good-faith complaints, or
threats to complain, of discrimination; or
Cooperating with an investigation regarding
a co-worker's discrimination claim.
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
• Activity may be protected even where
the underlying claim of discrimination or
harassment turned out to be false,
unsubstantiated or inconclusive.
• An employer should make sure
not to take adverse action against an
employee for engaging in protected
activity such as reporting a claim of
harassment or discrimination.
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
An adverse action is any material action that
would deter or dissuade an employee from
engaging in or supporting a protected
activity or a claim of discrimination or
harassment.
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Avoiding Religious Discrimination,
Harassment and Retaliation (con’t.)
• In order to avoid retaliation claims, a
supervisor should carefully document
legitimate business reason for discipline
or performance related actions and
provide these to the employee.
• Supervisors should be careful about the
timing of any discipline or performance
related actions if the employee asserts
religious rights.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices
What is an Accommodation?
An accommodation is any change in
the working environment or in the way
things are done which would allow an
individual to perform their work and
also follow their religious beliefs and
practices.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
• The focus should be on the essential or
fundamental functions or core duties of
the job.
• An employer is not required to eliminate
an essential function of the job or lower
production standards (qualitative or
quantitative) that are applied uniformly
to other employees.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
What is an Undue Hardship?
• An undue hardship may be created if a
requested accommodation would cause
an employer significant difficulty or
expense.
• An undue burden on the employer may
be a health, safety, or security concern or
a violation of a collective bargaining
agreement.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
Under Title VII and similar state and
local laws, an employer must show
undue hardship which is more than a
de minimis cost on the employer’s
business operations.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
Relevant factors for determining more than
de minimis cost include:
• Nature of the workplace;
• Nature of the employee’s job duties;
• Type of job needing accommodation;
• Cost of the accommodation in relation to
the size and operating costs of the
employer;
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
• Willingness of other employees to assist;
• Possibility of transferring the employee
and effects;
• What is done by similarly situated
employees;
• Number of employees available for
accommodation;
• Burden of accommodation to the union;
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
• Number of employees who will need a
particular accommodation; and
• The burden on the employer's business
(e.g., diminished efficiency, infringement
on other employees' rights or benefits,
impairment of workplace safety, conflict
with another law).
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
The focus is on assessing the resources and
circumstances of the particular employer in
relation to the cost and difficulty of
providing a requested accommodation on a
case-by-case basis.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
• An employer may go beyond the
requirements of the law and should be
flexible in evaluating whether or not an
accommodation is feasible.
• An employer may not deny an
employee's request for a religious
accommodation based on co-worker
jealousy or customer preference.
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Tip
An employer may not deny a request for an
accommodation based on customer
preference or move an individual requesting
an accommodation to a position that does
not involve interaction with customers or
other third parties.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
Interactive Process and Religion
• The interactive process should involve good faith
communication, discussion and exploration of
potential accommodations.
• When engaging in the interactive process with
an employee seeking a religious
accommodation, it is permissible for the
employer to seek additional information from
the employee regarding the religious practice
or requirements, especially if the employer has
any sense of doubt or suspicion.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
• To obtain a religious accommodation,
an employee must show that he or
she has a bona fide religious belief,
and is not merely seeking to
accommodate a personal preference.
• The individual must show the
employer that the belief or practice is
religious and it is sincerely held.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
Initiating the Interactive Process
• Generally an employee or applicant
informs the employer or a supervisor
of the issue and the need for a
religious accommodation, but is not
required to.
• No magic words are required on
behalf of the employee or applicant.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
• Any statement/act/conduct that
puts the employer or supervisor on
notice that religion or creed is
causing some kind of work conflict
or issue is sufficient.
• A supervisor should know how to
recognize a request for a religious
accommodation.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
• Employees should be trained to advise
their supervisors of the nature of the
conflict between their religious needs
and the work rules.
• Employees should provide enough
information to enable the supervisor to
understand what accommodation is
needed, and why it is necessitated by a
religious practice or belief.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
• Supervisors should develop an
internal process for recognizing
and responding to accommodation
requests.
• Each request should be assessed on
a case by case basis weighing the
costs and benefits.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
A supervisor should attempt to
ascertain the nature of the belief or
practice, how it will affect work and
what kind of accommodation does the
employee think will be effective.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
• A supervisor may request
reasonable documentation of the
religious practice.
• Individual beliefs may qualify as
religion or creed and may not be
documentable or validated by
religious authorities.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
• A supervisor should avoid stereotypes
and assumptions about what is a
religious belief or what kind of
accommodation is most appropriate.
• A supervisor is permitted to question the
employee about the employee’s religious
accommodation needs and available
accommodations.
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Did You Know?
There are no magic words an employee
needs to use to request an accommodation.
As long as an employer is on notice that an
employee engages in behavior or conduct
for religious reasons, an employer is said to
be on notice of the need for a religious
accommodation.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
Ongoing Interactive Process
• The supervisor and the employee should
communicate, cooperate and attempt to
reach a resolution.
• The supervisor should continue in the
quest to provide an accommodation or
show that to provide one would be
undue hardship.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
• A supervisor should consider all
alternative options if the requested
accommodation would cause an undue
hardship.
• A supervisor may need to provide the
employee with a temporary
accommodation while a more
permanent one is being explored.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
• An employer or supervisor is not
required to provide the preferred
accommodation, but only an
accommodation which would eliminate
the conflict.
• The supervisor should consider the
proposed accommodation and describe
why it may be inappropriate.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
Reasonable Accommodations and Collective
Bargaining Agreements
If a request for an accommodation conflicts
with a seniority system or a collective
bargaining agreement (CBA) and granting
the requested accommodation would
deprive another of a benefit, the employer
may be able to claim undue hardship.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
Even if a request for accommodation
conflicts with a seniority system or CBA, a
supervisor should not automatically reject
the request because the other affected
individual may voluntarily agree to
accommodate the religious needs of
another.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
Notwithstanding this, a supervisor
should make every effort to confer
with the employee as to whether it is
able to provide alternative
accommodation that does not conflict
with CBA.
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
Complying with Duty to Accommodate
In evaluating whether an employer or
supervisor met the burden to reasonably
accommodate an employee’s religious
belief, the following will be considered:
• Whether the employer or supervisor
attempted to accommodate;
• Size of workforce;
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Reasonable Accommodation of
Religious Beliefs and Practices (con’t.)
• Type of job in which conflict is
present;
• Cost of accommodation;
• Administrative aspects of
accommodations; and
• Availability of other employees to
do the work.
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Did You Know?
An employee may need an
accommodation only during certain
times of the year such as Ramadan or
Passover which may not apply during
the rest of the year.
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Types of Religious
Accommodations
Leave and Time Off
Employees may need to be provided with
altered or adjusted work schedules to
accommodate their religious practices.
This may be in the form of time off during
the day or full days off to observe holidays
and worship.
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Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
Employees also may be able to use flexible
leave policies, paid time off, unpaid leave,
flexible scheduling policies, vacation time,
telecommuting policies and floating holidays
to observe their religious beliefs without too
much disruption to the employer’s
workforce. An employer need not give off
for religious holidays.
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Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
Modification of Work Schedule
An employee's job schedule may also
require modification based on an
employee's religious beliefs.
Example: An employee may require prayer
breaks during the workday or reserve time
periods during the week for worship.
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Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
Accommodations can include:
• Modifying the employee's start or finish
time;
• Allowing a longer lunch or other time off
in the middle of the workday; or
• Changing when aspects of the
employee's job must be performed
during the day.
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Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
An employer may also reasonably
accommodate an employee's religious
beliefs by allowing a flexible schedule in
terms of arrival and departure times and
staggered hours so that employees may
engage in religious practices and worship.
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Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
In such situations, it is advisable to provide
the employee with the means to make up
lost time due to observance of religious
practices so as not to interfere with the
employer's operations or unfairly infringe on
the rights of other employees.
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Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
Voluntary Substitutes or Swaps
A supervisor should encourage or publicize
to employees to voluntarily substitute and
swap with other employees who may have
substantially similar job duties.
This may help promote camaraderie,
tolerance, good will and mutual respect
between employees.
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Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
Modification of Workplace Tasks and
Duties
It may be reasonable for an employer or
supervisor to reallocate, redistribute or alter
job functions, tasks or duties to accommodate
an employee's protected religious practice.
However, an employer does not have to alter
the essential functions of an employee's job
to reasonably accommodate the employee.
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Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
If an accommodation of an employee's job
function, duty or task is not possible, the
employer should consider providing the
employee with a lateral transfer.
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Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
Change of Job Assignments and
Lateral Transfers
If no other accommodation is possible, an
employer or supervisor may want to
consider providing the employee with a
lateral transfer. This should only be a last
resort after considering all possible
accommodations.
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Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
If a lateral transfer is not available, an
employer or supervisor should offer the
employee a lower paying position if it would
accommodate the employee and allow the
employee to decide whether or not to
accept it.
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Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
Appearance Policies and Religious
Dress and Grooming
A supervisor should make all efforts to
accommodate an employee’s desire to wear
religious garb or paraphernalia to express
their faith unless doing so would create an
undue hardship such as a safety issue or it
interferes with the employee’s work.
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Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
Some examples of religious dress include,
but are not limited to:
• Beards;
• Dreadlocks;
• Hairstyle;
• Religious jewelry such as a cross;
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Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
• Religious symbols such as a kirpan or
small symbolic miniature sword worn by
Sikhs;
• Headgear such as a kippah/yarmulke,
turban or hijab;
• Tattoos; and
• Body piercings.
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Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
If the dress code interferes with an
employee's religion, then the employer
should discuss potential reasonable
accommodations with the employee.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
If the employee is unable to comply with a
dress code that is a business necessity for
safety reasons or public image reasons
among other things, then the employer is
faced with an undue hardship and need not
accommodate the employee.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
An employer or supervisor may not assign
an employee who requests a religious
accommodation with respect to dress codes
and grooming to a noncustomer-contact
position.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
An employer should also prevent others
from harassing or discriminating against an
individual who wears such religious dress.
A supervisor should approach these
situations with caution on a case-by-case
basis.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Tip
Certain states such as California have
specific laws addressing religious
accommodations based on dress and
grooming.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Did You Know?
An individual may be able to claim that
his or her tattoos are spiritual and part of
their religious observance which may
entitle them to a reasonable
accommodation based on religion.
However, in such a case, an employer
may be able to ask an employee to cover
the tattoos up. It is a balancing act.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
Social Gatherings
An employer or supervisor should avoid
hosting social gatherings for employees with
overtly religious overtones such as a
Christmas party with religious caroling.
Employee attendance should be optional.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
Prayer, Proselytizing, and Religious
Expression
Some individuals may seek to pray in the
workplace or outwardly express their faith.
Employees should not be permitted to
proselytize, pray or engage in religious
expression if it would cause undue hardship
and unnecessarily disrupt the workplace.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
Example: If an employee wants to post a
small cross on his or her bulletin board this
may not be as disruptive as a large cross.
Example: If an individual seeks to pray
quietly at their desk, this is very different
than praying in the company lunchroom for
all employees.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
If a supervisor notices an employee who is
engaging in religious expression that is
disruptive or harassing, a supervisor should
identify alternative accommodations that
may avoid the disruption such as an unused
or private room for prayer.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
In such situations, an employer or
supervisor should accommodate the
employee if it would not cause an undue
hardship and other employees are
permitted to use the employer's facilities for
non-religious purposes in the same manner,
such as to read or study for personal
purposes.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Types of Religious
Accommodations (con’t.)
• An employer may prohibit employees
from distributing religious literature on
the employer’s premises as this may be
harassing and disruptive and have a
negative effect on co-workers,
customers, workplace operations and
safety.
• Each situation should be evaluated on a
case-by-case basis.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Best Practices for Supervisors
When it comes to religious
accommodations, a supervisor should follow
these best practices:
• Take conflicts seriously;
• Once on notice of conflict, try to find a
way to resolve it;
• Involve the employee in attempting to
find a resolution;
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Best Practices for Supervisors
• Develop a policy of responding to and
granting reasonable requests for
accommodation based on religion;
• Engage in the interactive process with
the employee when faced with a request
for accommodation;
• Make a good faith inquiry about the
employee's religious practices if the
supervisor needs more information;
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Best Practices for Supervisors
• Consider all possible options and be
creative in offering reasonable
accommodations;
• Evaluate whether, in fact, the proposed
accommodation will cause the employer
undue hardship;
• Treat all religions fairly and equally; and
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Best Practices for Supervisors
• Document all discussions with the
employee and all considerations of
the requested and proposed
accommodations.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Test Yourself
Question 1
Tej is Sikh and wears a kirpan or symbolic
miniature sword under his clothing as a
commitment to his faith. He requests that
he be allowed to wear the kirpan under his
bear costume so that he can continue to
observe his faith while working. The
amusement park has a weapons policy that
bans knives and swords. How should his
employer respond?
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Test Yourself
Question 1 (con’t.)
a. The employer should allow him to wear the
kirpan because doing so would not present
an undue hardship and safety risk in
violation of amusement park policy.
b. The employer should deny the request
because allowing him to do so would cause
an undue hardship and safety risk.
c. The employer should deny the request
because it violates the amusement park’s
dress code and weapons code.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Test Yourself
Question 1: Answer
a. The employer should allow him to wear the
kirpan because doing so would not present
an undue hardship and safety risk in
violation of amusement park policy.
b. The employer should deny the request
because allowing him to do so would cause
an undue hardship and safety risk.
c. The employer should deny the request
because it violates the amusement park’s
dress code and weapons code.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Test Yourself
Question 1: Rationale
a. Allowing Tej to wear a kirpan under his
costume would not create an undue hardship
or cause a safety issue in any way. Choice b is
incorrect because there is no undue hardship if
the kirpan is under his costume and not in view.
Choice c is incorrect, because although the
employer may implement a dress code as well
as a weapons code for employees, the
employer must be prepared to make
reasonable accommodations based on religion.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Test Yourself
Question 2
Nandi interviews with Model World magazine.
Model World has a strict dress code that prohibits
individuals from wearing headpieces. During the
interview, Nandi wears a hijab. She does not ask
for an accommodation or suggest that she will
wear it if she gets the job. When it comes time to
decide whether or not she will be hired, Amanda,
the supervisor, picks Sheryl over Nandi because
she believes that Nandi will request a religious
accommodation based on the hijab. Is this
lawful?
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Test Yourself
Question 2 (con’t.)
a. Yes, because employers are permitted
to institute dress codes for
professional business and safety
reasons.
b. No, because Amanda let the hijab
influence her decision.
c. Yes, because Nandi never specifically
requested an accommodation.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Test Yourself
Question 2: Answer
a. Yes, because employers are permitted
to institute dress codes for
professional business and safety
reasons.
b. No, because Amanda let the hijab
influence her decision.
c. Yes, because Nandi never specifically
requested an accommodation.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Test Yourself
Question 2: Rationale
b. An employer is not permitted to let a religious
accommodation influence her decision. Choice a
is incorrect because even though an employer is
allowed to implement a dress code for
professional bushiness reasons, an employer
must be prepared to make reasonable
accommodations. Choice c is incorrect because
Nandi does not have to specifically request an
accommodation if Model World allows it to
unnecessarily influence its decision whether to
hire her or not.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.