Religious Accomodation

hhaynal

All, need your input on how to handle the "me toos" who are anticipated to jump onto the bandwagon.

The situation is this: We have an employee in mfg working 12/hr shifts on the 4/3 rotation (on 3, off 4, on 4, off 3) resulting in working 2 Sundays each month. The employee is a devout, practicing Christian. At the beginning of the year, the employee requested 6 hrs. vacation for every Sunday that he was working in order that he could go to Church in the morning then report to work at noon. By September the employee will have exhausted all his vacation and will continue to take the 6 hours each scheduled Sunday without pay.

The problem is this: We have reason to believe that others want to jump on the band wagon for purposes of having Sundays off over the summer months under the premises of religious observation. Besides a staffing impact on weekends, it affects morale among the dedicated who report as scheduled.

Any suggestions as to handling the me-toos?

System

You don't have to make a religious accommodation to anyone who does not have a "sincerely held" religious belief. If you're making the accommodation for the Christian and it does not create an undue hardship for your firm, you can continue on. If the others start crying 'me too' I would expect to see them practicing their ritual as it relates to their sincerely held belief. They should be 'in church on Sunday' or show up at work.

Rockie

The religious accomodation is for a "sincerely held" religious belief. Since this guy has been taking the Sunday mornings off since the beginning and will be on LWOP after exhausting his vacation pay, I'd say his accomodation was sincerely held.

As far as the others,my question to them would be: "Why are you all of a sudden asking for a religious accomodation since you have not had an objection until now working on Sundays?"

Employees cannot have it both ways. Otherwise, employees would be changing religions like socks. One week they would be Catholic, one week Seventh Day Adventists, etc. in order to get time off.

Sounds to me like they have "summer-itis". As soon as they run out of vacation time for the Sundays off, and are faced with LWOP, they will want to work Sundays again. If they do, in fact, ask for a religious accomodation, ask them to put it in writing as to what their objection is for working on Sunday.

hhaynal

Thanks for the input. I will pass this along to the mgr and supvr.

Whatever

There are many people who sincerely hold religious beliefs but do not attend Church or Synagogue weekly. However, I would question the sincerity of seasonal practice of any religion. I would get the request in writing. I would, also, grant the request on the proviso that the ee understands that this a permanent accomodation.

Shadowfax

Whatever - In my part of the country, Sunday AM golf is a seasonal religion!

Whatever

Shadowfox -Please note, I said "seasonal PRACTICE". I would never question anyone who is so proficient they do not need to practice. x:D

KathiHR

I would suggest you talk with your employment attorney before you allow the man to start taking time off unpaid, probably in violation of an attendance policy.

We are currently involved in an EEOC claim over religious discrimination. In our part of the country, courts have generally not upheld the employer's position of deciding who has a "sincerely held" belief & who does not. You need a policy addressing religious accommodation that gives you a consistent procedure to follow, a formal way for employees to request it, & that does not require you to judge who's sincere & who's not.

System

If my brain is working right after shooting off fireworks last night, you're allowed to ask employees for a note from their clergy -- e.g., is Sunday morning church essential, is there another service, etc. That might discourage some fakers. x0:)

Also, you don't have to bend over backwards for a religious accommodation the way you do for the ADA. So staffing problems could be an undue hardship.

There's a big ol' Special Report on religion in the workplace, free online if you're an Employment Law Letter subscriber. Log in and go to the yellow box at the bottom of the page.
[url]http://www.hrhero.com/lc/[/url]

Good luck.

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

hhaynal

James,

You hit upon an issue that we are addressing with the original individual who takes 6 hrs vacation every Sunday he is scheduled to work. His manager wants to know if she can require him to come in to work for 3 hours, leave for Church, and then return to work. The employee's shift begins at 6am. It was also suggested that perhaps the employee could go to another Church that has an earlier service than his own Church. I do not believe we can request either of these options. Forumite opinion?

Don D

Tell the supervisor to return to the production line.

Crout

I agree wholeheartedly that you should look for some means to separate the fakers from the Quakers, so to speak, when you grant a religious accommodation. However, I do not see the wisdom in brainstorming over how you can put the screws to a person who really does seem to have sincerely held religious beliefs.

hhaynal

I agree wholeheartedly with you, Crout. I keep advising the employee's supvr and mgr to let him have his six hours and be done with it.

Kent

That request would then most likely be followed by the new suggestion that "due to a religious epiphany that occurred last night I can no longer work on Sunday at all due to my sincerely held religous beliefs."

Bill ONeill

I feel that you made an error in not forseeing that your allowing the individual to take 6 hours vacation time would lead to a problem. My undrstanding is that you must make an accomodation for a religious practice, as long as it does not adversely effect the business. It sounds to me like it does. I would look into stopping this arrangement.

Crout

How is this person's accomodation adversely effecting the business? At this stage of the game, AFTER the accomodation has been granted and in place, you had better have some concrete numbers to back up such a claim, rather than go on the OPINION of the supervisor.

Paul in Cannon Beach

One question could be, is it possible for you to work out your schedule so that your staff who do sincerely want to attend a church service could do so? It might be difficult but is it impossible? Consider it one of the perks of working for your organization.

We are always looking for ways to boost employee moral. Studies repeatedly show that control over schedule and work/life balance rank at the top of what employees are looking for. So, why not at least try to make these accommodations and boost employee morale and loyalty at the same time.

If the whole thing becomes a nightmare you could nix all accommodations as an unreasonable burden.

SDDCHR

I would have the ee check on other times to attend services. If this doesn't work, then go with what the supervisor had suggested, work a few hours, let the ee off (maybe an early lunch break) to attend services, then come back to work.