The Supreme Court recently ruled that a lower court must reconsider whether an employer must give an employee (who was a Pennsylvania mail carrier) Sundays off as a religious accommodation – what does that mean for employers?
In this case, the high Court announced a new standard for determining whether a religious accommodation must be made by an employer. The prior standard held that employers need not make a religious accommodation if it was “minimally” disruptive to the business. The new standard articulated by the Court clarifies and raises that standard to that of an “undue hardship.” This means that employers confronted with a request for a religious accommodation should carefully consider the request and engage in an interactive process with the employee to review all potential options for that request.