by The U.S. Supreme Court has changed what an employer must establish to support a claim that an employee’s request for a religious accommodation is unreasonable because it creates an undue hardship for the employer.
The Case and What the Employer Did: On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Groff v. DeJoy, regarding a postal worker who objected to working on Sundays for religious reasons. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination based on religion. It obligates employers to grant employees a reasonable accommodation to workplace policies and practices if meeting a working condition or policy would be objectionable to the employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs. The employer is relieved of that obligation if it establishes that the accommodation would create an undue hardship for the employer. Since a U.S. Supreme Court decision several decades ago, employers and reviewing courts have interpreted the term ‘undue hardship’ in this context to mean that the accommodation would create more than a de minimus, or minimum, hardship for the employer. In Groff v. DeJoy, the employer claimed that it was more than a ‘de minimus’ hardship to relieve the employee of the requirement to work on Sunday.
What the Court Decided: The Supreme Court found that the employer’s interpretation of undue hardship for religious accommodations was incorrect. The Court ruled that the undue hardship standard for religious accommodation requests is a showing that it would result in substantially increased costs in relation to the conduct of the employer’s particular business.
How the Decision Changes the Way Undue Hardship is Established: The Court’s decision changes how most employers understood their religious accommodation obligations. In the June 29th decision, the Supreme Court explained that previous interpretations of the meaning of ‘more than de minimus hardship’ were incorrect. The employee in the case had argued that the Court should apply the high standard for showing an undue hardship that is applied under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Court rejected this argument but also rejected the commonly applied interpretation of ‘more than a de minimus undue hardship’. It clarified that the employer assessing religious accommodation requests must make a fact-specific analysis of the economic impact on the conduct of the employer’s business before determining that there is an undue hardship. The analysis may include considering the accommodation’s effect on co-workers but only as part of whether the overall facts show that the burden is substantial in the context of an employer’s business. The Court also points out that the employer must consider other possible accommodation options if the requested accommodation would impose an undue hardship.
What Guidance is Provided to Employers in Applying the New Standard: Other than pointing to current EEOC guidance on religious accommodation as remaining applicable in many aspects, the Court does not provide much guidance for employers on applying the clarified undue hardship standard for religious accommodations.
In 2021, the EEOC updated its manual for investigators on how to review claims of religious discrimination. https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/section-12-religious-discrimination. In summarizing the updated information for employers, the EEOC stated:
An employer does not have to accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs or practices if doing so would cause undue hardship to the employer. An accommodation may cause undue hardship if it is costly, compromises workplace safety, decreases workplace efficiency, infringes on the rights of other employees, or requires other employees to do more than their share of potentially hazardous or burdensome work. https://www.eeoc.gov/religious-discrimination.
What Employers Can Do Pending More Guidance from the EEOC or Courts: Employers should recognize that this is a change in how employers will be judged regarding their response to religious accommodation requests. Human resources staff and managers responsible for responding to religious accommodation requests should review current EEOC guidance and ensure that they only deny requests based on a documented assessment of the facts demonstrating that granting the accommodation would create an economic burden measured in terms of the employer’s particular business. The use of an interactive accommodation process is recommended.
