religious holidays

dynamite9551

dear forum -

this is a first for me and i'm sure this has been addressed at one time but i don't have the time to read all of the posts....

an employee came me today and advised she is jewish and is requesting off passover and day after. i am supposing we must honor this request??? any feedback is appreciated.

ray a

For religious holidays not part of the holiday schedule we allow ee's time off and they must use either vacation, personal time or floating holiday. The real intent of our floating holiday is to cover for these type situations.

deniseE

We offer similar solutions. Because some of our areas operate 24/7/365 we are able to have ee's "switch" holidays....for example some work Christmas so that they can have Yom Kippur off. It works well for us...

System

If the religion is a "sincerely held" you can make a reasonable allowance for her. If she has any paid time off available, perhaps you could allow her to use those days with the PTO. If she has no available PTO, you can consider allowing her to take the time without pay, provided it does not create an extreme hardship to your company.

Roberta

According to my desk reference (Federal Employment Laws and Regulations How to Comply Survival Guide #6 by Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson):

"Title VII specifically requires employers to make reasonable accomodations to the religious needs of employees unles accommodation would create an undue hardship on the employer's business."

"In general, it is recommended that the employer seek suggestions from the employee as to what could be done to accommodate, as well as suggest solutions of its own."

"An employer need not choose the accommodation suggested by the employee but may offer any reasonable plan for accommodation."

"Typical accommodations include voluntary substitutes or "swaps", flexible schedulin, lateral transfers or changes in assignments."

JM in ATL

A little off topic, but... why wouldn't you honor the request?

If she was requesting off for Easter would you be asking the same question?

Whether or not someone runs around screaming I'M JEWISH and wearing a yamaka (sp?)doesn't mean they don't take their religion seriously.

If the request can be granted without causing an undue hardship (which if she is the only one requesting the time then it doesn't sound like it would)then grant the request without questioning the fact that it is for a religious holiday.