Workplace Religious Freedom Act of 2013 - Amends provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 related to equal employment opportunities to include in the term "religion" all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief, unless an employer demonstrates that the employer 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 observance or practice without undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's business. (Current law makes no reference to an employer's affirmative and bona fide effort.)
Provides that an employer's accommodation of an employee's practice of wearing religious clothing or a religious hairstyle, or of taking time off for a religious reason, imposes an undue hardship on the conduct of an employer's business in accommodating such practice only if the accommodation imposes a significant difficulty or expense on the conduct of the employer's business when considered in light of specified factors set forth in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, including: (1) the nature and cost of the accommodation needed, (2) the financial resources and size of the business, and (3) the type of operation of the business.
Requires an employer's accomodation, before it may be considered a reasonable accomodation, to remove the conflict between employment requirements and the employee's religious practice. Prohibits an accomodation from being a reasonable accomodation if it requires an employee to be segregated from customers or the general public.
[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3686 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
112th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 3686
To amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to establish
provisions with respect to religious accommodations in employment, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
December 17, 2012
Mr. Kerry introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to establish
provisions with respect to religious accommodations in employment, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Workplace Religious Freedom Act of
2013''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) In enacting title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
(42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.) (referred to in this Act as ``title
VII''), Congress--
(A) recognized the widespread incidence of and harm
caused by religious discrimination in employment;
(B) expressly intended to establish that religion
is a class protected from discrimination in employment,
as race, color, sex, and national origin are protected
classes; and
(C) recognized that, absent undue hardship, a
covered employer's failure to reasonably accommodate an
employee's religious practice is discrimination within
the meaning of that title.
(2) Eradicating religious discrimination in employment is
essential to reach the goal of full equal employment
opportunity in the United States.
(3) In Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison, 432 U.S. 63
(1977), the Supreme Court held that an employer could deny an
employee's request for religious accommodation based on any
burden greater than a de minimis burden on the employer, and
thus narrowed the scope of protection of title VII against
religious discrimination in employment, contrary to the intent
of Congress.
(4) As a consequence of the Hardison decision and resulting
appellate and trial court decisions, discrimination against
employees on the basis of religion in employment continues to
be an unfortunate and unacceptable reality.
(5) Federal, State, and local government, and private
employers have a history and have established a continuing
pattern of discrimination in unreasonably denying religious
accommodations in employment, including in the areas of garb,
grooming, and scheduling.
(6) Although this Act addresses requests for accommodation
with respect to garb, grooming, and scheduling due to
employees' religious practices, enactment of this Act does not
represent a determination that other religious accommodation
requests do not deserve similar attention or future resolution
by Congress.
(7) The Supreme Court has held in Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer,
427 U.S. 445 (1976) that Congress has clearly authorized
Federal courts to award monetary damages in favor of a private
individual against a State government found in violation of
title VII, and this holding is supported by Quern v. Jordan,
440 U.S. 332 (1979).
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are--
(1) to address the history and widespread pattern of
discrimination by private sector employers and Federal, State,
and local government employers in unreasonably denying
religious accommodations in employment, specifically in the
areas of garb, grooming, and scheduling;
(2) to provide a comprehensive Federal prohibition of
employment discrimination on the basis of religion, including
that denial of accommodations, specifically in the areas of
garb, grooming, and scheduling;
(3) to confirm Congress' clear and continuing intention to
abrogate States' 11th amendment immunity from claims made under
title VII; and
(4) to invoke congressional powers to prohibit employment
discrimination, including the powers to enforce the 14th
amendment, and to regulate interstate commerce pursuant to
section 8 of article I of the Constitution, in order to
prohibit discrimination on the basis of religion, including
unreasonable denial of religious accommodations, specifically
in the areas of garb, grooming, and scheduling.
SEC. 4. AMENDMENTS.
(a) Definitions.--Section 701(j) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
(42 U.S.C. 2000e(j)) is amended--
(1) by inserting ``(1)'' after ``(j)'';
(2) in paragraph (1), as so designated, by striking ``he is
unable'' and inserting ``the employer is unable, after
initiating and engaging in an affirmative and bona fide
effort,''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
``(2) For purposes of paragraph (1), with respect to the
practice of wearing religious clothing or a religious
hairstyle, or of taking time off for a religious reason, an
accommodation of such a religious practice--
``(A) shall not be considered to be a reasonable
accommodation unless the accommodation removes the
conflict between employment requirements and the
religious practice of the employee;
``(B) shall be considered to impose an undue
hardship on the conduct of the employer's business only
if the accommodation imposes a significant difficulty
or expense on the conduct of the employer's business
when considered in light of relevant factors set forth
in section 101(10)(B) of the Americans with
Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12111(10)(B))
(including accompanying regulations); and
``(C) shall not be considered to be a reasonable
accommodation if the accommodation requires segregation
of an employee from customers or the general public.
``(3) In this subsection:
``(A) The term `taking time off for a religious
reason' means taking time off for a holy day or to
participate in a religious observance.
``(B) The term `wearing religious clothing or a
religious hairstyle' means--
``(i) wearing religious apparel the wearing
of which is part of the observance of the
religious faith practiced by the individual;
``(ii) wearing jewelry or another ornament
the wearing of which is part of the observance
of the religious faith practiced by the
individual;
``(iii) carrying an object the carrying of
which is part of the observance of the
religious faith practiced by the individual; or
``(iv) adopting the presence, absence, or
style of a person's hair or beard the adoption
of which is part of the observance of the
religious faith practiced by the individual.''.
SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICATION OF AMENDMENTS; SEVERABILITY.
(a) Effective Date.--Except as provided in subsection (b), this Act
and the amendments made by section 4 take effect on the date of
enactment of this Act.
(b) Application of Amendments.--This Act and the amendments made by
section 4 do not apply with respect to conduct occurring before the
date of enactment of this Act.
(c) No Diminution of Rights.--With respect to religious practices
not described in section 701(j)(2) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as
amended by section 4(a)(3), nothing in this Act or an amendment made by
this Act shall be construed to diminish any right that may exist, or
remedy that may be available, on the day before the date of enactment
of this Act, for discrimination in employment because of religion by
reason of failure to provide a reasonable accommodation of a religious
practice, pursuant to title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42
U.S.C. 2000e et seq.).
(d) Severability.--
(1) In general.--If any provision of an amendment made by
this Act, or any application of such provision to any person or
circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of
the amendments made by this Act and the application of the
provision to any other person or circumstance shall not be
affected.
(2) Definition of religion.--If, in the course of
determining a claim brought under title VII of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.), a court holds that the
application of the provision described in paragraph (1) to a
person or circumstance is unconstitutional, the court shall
determine the claim with respect to that person or circumstance
by applying the definition of the term ``religion'' specified
in section 701 of that Act (42 U.S.C. 2000e), as in effect on
the day before the date of enactment of this Act.
<all>
Introduced in Senate
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
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