Here’s a hypothetical: A observant Jewish worker who is a recent leg amputee comes to you seeking an “accommodation”. She works on the candy wrapping line that requires constant supervision and is staffed by only one or two people typically. She seeks to leave her shift 4 hours early on Fridays to observe the Jewish
In the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, holding that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act provides protection to closely held corporations to refuse, for religious reasons, to provide birth control methods and services to employees under the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, the issue of accommodating an employee’s
The U.S. Supreme Court this morning came out with two controversial decisions that will impact employers in Connecticut.
The first one, Harris v. Quinn, dealt with whether non-union public employees could be forced to pay union dues. The court issued a relatively narrow holding, ruling that “partial” public employees could not be required to
The Connecticut Supreme Court today ruled (in a decision that will be effective August 2, 2011) that the ministerial exception found under the First Amendment bars certain employment related claims brought against religious institutions.
The court’s unanimous decision in Dayner v. Archdiocese of
With Passover and Easter coming up this week, it seems timely to revisit the laws regarding religious discrimination and accommodation.
Fortunately for you (and me), the Employment & Labor Insider just posted a terrific piece on the subject. Among the issues that the post flagsis the common situation of an employer who tries to
The EEOC today released a new compliance manual section on religious discrimination in the workplace. A press release from the EEOC is available here while you can download the actual section directly here.
What is useful about the compliance manual section, according to the EEOC, is that it "includes a comprehensive review of the relevant provisions
It’s just a little bit ironic that on this Good Friday, the Second Circuit decided a case that will be very important to religious institutions in Connecticut, New York and Vermont. Ultimately, it held that Title VII — which, among other things, prohibits discriminati
on based on race — is unconstitutional when applied to certain