The U.S. Supreme Court Raises the Bar for Denial of Religious Accommodations

Federal law makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against job applicants and employees  because of their religious beliefs or practices. The law also requires employers to reasonably accommodate an employee’s or job applicant’s religious beliefs or practices. If an employee’s or job applicant’s genuinely held religious opinions, adherences, or practices conflict with work requirements, and they give notice to the employer requesting accommodation, the employer is required to reasonably accommodate the employee or applicant. According to Title VII, the only time an employer is allowed not to accommodate an employee’s or job applicant’s religious beliefs or practices is if doing so would create an undue burden on them. Before, it meant an employer had the right to refuse to accommodate an employee’s or job applicant’s religious beliefs if doing so would impose “more than a de minimis cost” to their company. After a recent Supreme Court ruling, employers are now only allowed to refuse to accommodate employees’ or applicants’ religious beliefs or practices if doing so would cause a significant rise in costs associated with running the business.

Background of the Case

For purposes of this article, the plaintiff in this case will be referred to as G.G.

G.G., an Evangelical Christian, started working for the U.S. Postal Service in 2012. When he began working, he did not have to work on Sundays. This was very important to G.G. However, things changed, and G. G’s employer required him to start working on Sunday after entering an agreement with a client that required packages to be delivered on Sunday. For some time, G.G. could avoid working on Sundays since he transferred to a location that did nt require him to work on Sundays. However, after some time, the expanse of the Sunday work soon got to his new location. As a result, G.G. was increasingly disciplined for not working on Sundays. In 2019, G.G. resigned to avoid termination.

After his resignation, G.G. sued for disparate treatment and refusal to offer reasonable accommodation. He argued that accommodating his religious practices would not have caused the employer undue burden. The lower courts sided with the employer on the basis that accommodating G.G’s religious practices would create “more than a de minimis cost” to the employer’s business. The Circuit court ruled that excusing G.G. from working on Sundays had, among other things, disrupted the office environment and workflow and placed additional demands on other workers.

G.G. appealed the decision and asked the Supreme Court to reconsider the “more than a de minimis cost” test. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court overturned the decision made by the lower courts. After thorough analysis, the Supreme Court held that the “more than a de minimis costs” test set the bar very low for employers. The Supreme Court held that the proper test to use when determining if a requested religious accommodation imposes an undue hardship on an employer is whether the accommodation would cause a significant rise in costs associated with running the business.

Contact a California Employment Lawyer

If you are a California employee and need more information or an employer has unfairly refused to accommodate your religious beliefs or practices, contact a California employment lawyer near you.