Religious accommodation requests may proliferate following the Supreme Court's more stringent standard for rejecting requests in its Groff v. DeJoy decision. Some of the requests may pit devout employees against LGBTQ+ co-workers, who themselves may be religious. Managers can help keep work relationships civil by directing religious accommodation requests to HR and then cooperating in the religious accommodation process.
"Released at around the same time as Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action in higher education and religious liberty for small-business owners, Groff initially did not generate a huge amount of discussion or controversy," said Matt Durham, an attorney with Dorsey & Whitney in Salt Lake City. "Employers are now beginning to see the implications of the new religious accommodation standards and the complexities of compliance."
For 46 years, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and lower courts have cited the Supreme Court's 1977 decision in Hardison when determining "undue hardship." In that interpretation, an employer had to establish that an accommodation would result in "more than a de minimis cost," said Jonathan Segal, an attorney with Duane Morris in Philadelphia and New York City.
In Groff, the Supreme Court concluded Hardison that been misinterpreted. The Groff court held that Hardison established a higher standard for finding undue hardship for religious accommodation requests, one that requires showing a substantial burden...
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