U.S. Commission Rules on Releasing Religious Employes on Saturdays

The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission today reported that it has considered problems arising from the insistence of some employers that employes work on Saturday in cases involving Jewish workers.

Seventh Day Adventists are also affected. But the Commission made it clear that very few such complaints alleging religious discrimination were received. Only 14 cases of religious discrimination were recommended for Commission investigation in contrast to the 2,026 Negro complaints ordered probed during the last year. The first annual Commission report covered discrimination by employers, public and private employment agencies, labor organizations and joint labor-management apprenticeship programs.

The report revealed that “of the total number of charges filed with the Commission during the first year, relatively few alleged religious discrimination, and of those, most raised the question whether it is discrimination on religious grounds to discharge or to refuse to hire a person whose religious observances require that he take time off during the employers regular work week. These complaints typically involve employes who regularly observe Saturday as the Sabbath or who observe certain special holidays during the year.”

The Commission determined basically that an employer is required “to accommodate to the reasonable religious needs of employes or prospective employes where such accommodation can be made without serious inconvenience to the normal conduct of business. The employer is free to establish a regular work week generally applicable to all employes, even though such schedule may not operate with uniformity in its effect upon the religious observances of all employes.”

It was ruled by the Commission that “an employer may permit absences from work on religious holidays, with or without pay, but must treat all religions with substantial uniformity in this respect. Closing a business on one religious holiday does not of itself create an obligation to permit time off from work on another. However, the employer must, to the extent he can do so without serious inconvenience, accommodate to the needs of his employes in connection with such holiday observances.”

The Commission held that an employer may prescribe a normal work week and foreseeable overtime requirements in the absence of an intention to discriminate, a job applicant or employe who accepted the job knowing or having any reason to believe that such requirements would conflict with his religious obligations, is not entitled to demand any alteration in such requirements. On the other hand, where any employe has previously been employed on a schedule which does not conflict with his religious obligations and it becomes necessary to alter his work schedule, the employer should attempt to achieve an accommodation so as to avoid a conflict. In seeking such an accommodation, the employer need not, however, undergo serious inconvenience to the conduct of his business or allocate unfavorable work assignments disproportionately to other employes.”