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IPA
Public Policy Library
THE
WORKPLACE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ACT
B
A C K G R O U N D E R
Critical
Legislation for the American Community
Today
in the United States, where the First Amendment of the Constitution
protects each citizen’s right to the free exercise of his or her
religion, many citizens are confronted with a difficult choice –
between their faith and their livelihood.
The Workplace Religious Freedom Act (“WRFA”) is designed
to ensure that no American is forced to make such a choice.
Prior
to 1977, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 required employers to
reasonably accommodate the religious observances of their employees unless doing
so would impose an “undue hardship” upon the employer.
In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court eviscerated this protection for religious
workers by holding that if an accommodation imposed even a de
minimis expense upon the employer, an accommodation was not required under
the law. (TWA
v. Hardison, 432 U.S. 63)
WRFA seeks to amend Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to reinstate the
protection religious workers require so that they may be faithful to their
religion and support their families as well.
WRFA
would return the law to what Congress intended by applying similar standards for
determining what would constitute an “undue hardship” to an employer as
already found in other important protections for workers such as the Americans
with Disabilities Act.
Thus, WRFA would define an “undue hardship” as a situation which
imposes “significant difficulty or expense” upon the employer as determined
by factors such as the cost of the accommodation in relation to the size and
operating costs of the employer as well as the number of individual employees
seeking such an accommodation.
The definition of
“undue hardship” has been carefully crafted to balance both the
respect that religion must be afforded with the needs of employers to have
reliable and productive workplaces.
Thus, for example, a reasonable accommodation that would preclude the
employee from fulfilling the “essential functions” of his or her job need
not be provided.
A
typical scenario which the passage of WRFA would address is with regard to
permitting the more flexible work schedules religious employees often need.
If, for example, an employee needed to leave early on Friday afternoon in
order to observe the Jewish sabbath or a Christian wished to take off from work
on Good Friday, and was willing to work late nights earlier in the week to
ensure that all of the tasks for which he/she was responsible were completed
(ensuring that there would be no impact upon the employer’s “bottom
line”), WRFA would require the employer to grant such an accommodation and not
insist that worker be present on Friday.
The
Workplace Religious Freedom Act enjoys the support of a broad coalition of
religious groups including, but not limited to:
American Jewish Committee, Baptist Joint Committee, Christian Legal
Society, Family Research Council, General Conference of Seventh Day Adventists,
National Association of Evangelicals, National Council of Churches, Union of
Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
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