Changes in existing statutes proposed by the Workplace Religious Freedom Act of 2007
Last updated September 1, 2007
The following reflects the changes in existing statutory
wording that would take place if this bill were to become law (changes in red):
42
U.S.C. § 2000e. Definitions
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(j) (1) The
term “religion” includes all aspects of religious observance and practice, as
well as belief, unless an employer demonstrates that he is unable , after initiating and
engaging in an affirmative and bona fide effort, to reasonably accommodate to an
employee’s or prospective employee’s religious an employee's religious observance or practice without undue hardship on the
conduct of the employer’s business.
(2)(A) In this subsection, the term `employee'
includes an employee (as defined in subsection (f)), or a prospective employee,
who, with or without reasonable accommodation, is qualified to perform the
essential functions of the employment position that such individual holds or
desires.
(B) In this paragraph, the term `perform the
essential functions' includes carrying out the core requirements of an
employment position and does not include carrying out practices relating to
clothing, practices relating to taking time off, or other practices that may
have a temporary or tangential impact on the ability to perform job functions,
if any of the practices described in this subparagraph restrict the ability to
wear religious clothing, to take time off for a holy day, or to participate in
a religious observance or practice.
(3) In this subsection, the term `undue hardship'
means an accommodation requiring significant difficulty or expense. For
purposes of determining whether an accommodation requires significant
difficulty or expense, factors to be considered in making the determination
shall include--
(A) the identifiable cost of the accommodation,
including the costs of loss of productivity and of retraining or hiring
employees or transferring employees from 1 facility to another;
(B) the overall financial resources and size of
the employer involved, relative to the number of its employees; and
(C) for an employer with multiple facilities, the
geographic separateness or administrative or fiscal relationship of the
facilities.
42
U.S.C. § 2000e–2. Unlawful employment practices
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(o)(1) In this subsection:
(A) The term `employee' has the meaning given the
term in section 701(j)(2).
(B) The term `leave of general usage' means leave
provided under the policy or program of an employer, under which--
(i) an employee may take
leave by adjusting or altering the work schedule or assignment of the employee
according to criteria determined by the employer; and
(ii) the employee may determine the purpose for
which the leave is to be utilized.
(2) For purposes of determining whether an employer
has committed an unlawful employment practice under this title by failing to
provide a reasonable accommodation to the religious observance or practice of
an employee, for an accommodation to be considered to be reasonable, the
accommodation shall remove the conflict between employment requirements and the
religious observance or practice of the employee.
(3) An employer shall be considered to commit such
a practice by failing to provide such a reasonable accommodation for an
employee if the employer refuses to permit the employee to utilize leave of
general usage to remove such a conflict solely because the leave will be used
to accommodate the religious observance or practice of the employee.