Miami Religious Accommodation Lawyer

A form of religious discrimination is when an employee requests an accommodation based on his or her sincerely held religious belief, for instance, to not work on Saturdays if it is the employee’s Sabbath, and the employer fails to offer a reasonable accommodation. A “reasonable accommodation” is defined as a change in a workplace rule or policy that eliminates the conflict between the employee’s religious practice and the employer’s work rules. Employers must offer a reasonable accommodation unless doing so would cause an undue hardship. An “undue hardship” generally means that it would be too expensive or difficult for the employer to provide an accommodation.

The employee is required to work with the employer to find a reasonable accommodation. In other words, an employee who observes the Sabbath on Saturdays cannot simply refuse to work other shifts the employer offers the employee in order to provide Saturdays off. If the employer cannot provide a reasonable accommodation, it must show that it cannot do so as it would result in an undue hardship.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has defined an undue hardship as something that costs more than normal to administer, impacts efficiency or safety, infringes on another employees’ rights, or puts an extra burden on other employees who would suffer from increased workloads.