I
104TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4117
To amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to establish provisions
with respect to religious accommodation in employment, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER 19, 1996
Mr. NADLER (for himself, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. TOWNS, Mrs. MALONEY, and
Ms. LOFGREN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities
A BILL
To amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to
establish provisions with respect to religious accommoda-
tion in employment, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives 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 1996’’.
SEC. 2. AMENDMENT.
(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) by inserting ‘‘, after initiating and engaging
in an affirmative and bona fide effort,’’ after ‘‘un-
able’’; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(2) As used 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 ex-
pense, the factors to be considered shall include—
‘‘(A) the identifiable cost of the accommodation
in relation to the size and operating cost of the em-
ployer; and
‘‘(B) the number of individuals who will need a
particular accommodation to a religious observance
or practice.’’.
(b) EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES.—Section 703 of such
Act (42 U.S.C. 2000e–2) is amended by adding at the end
the following:
‘‘(o)(1) For purposes of determining whether an em-
ployer has committed an unlawful employment practice
under this title by failing to provide a reasonable accom-
modation to the religious observance or practice of an em-
ployee or prospective employee, an accommodation by the
employer shall not be deemed to be reasonable if—
‘‘(A) such accommodation does not remove the
conflict between employment requirements and the
religious observance or practice of the employee or
prospective employee; or
‘‘(B)(i) the employee or prospective employee
demonstrates to the employer the availability of an
alternative accommodation less onerous to the em-
ployee or prospective employee that may be made by
the employer without undue hardship on the conduct
of the employer’s business; and
‘‘(ii) the employer refuses to make such accom-
modation.
‘‘(2) It shall not be a defense to a claim of unlawful
employment practice for failure to provide a reasonable ac-
commodation that such accommodation would be in viola-
tion of a bona fide seniority system if, in order for the
employer to reasonably accommodate to such observance
or practice—
‘‘(A) an adjustment would be made in the em-
ployee’s work hours (including an adjustment that
requires the employee to work overtime in order to
avoid working at a time that abstention from work
is necessary to satisfy religious requirements), shift,
or job assignment, that would not be available to
any employee but for such accommodation; or
‘‘(B) the employee and any other employee
would voluntarily exchange shifts or job assign-
ments, or voluntarily make some other arrangement
between the employees.
‘‘(3)(A) An employer shall not be required to pay pre-
mium wages for work performed during hours to which
such premium wages would ordinarily be applicable, if
work is performed during such hours only to accommodate
religious requirements of an employee.
‘‘(B) As used in this paragraph, the term ‘premium
wages’ includes premium overtime pay, pay for night,
weekend, or holiday work, and pay for standby or irregular
duty.’’.
SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICATION OF AMENDMENTS.
(a) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Except as provided in sub-
section (b), this Act and the amendments made by section
2 shall take effect on the date of enactment of this Act.
(b) APPLICATION OF AMENDMENTS.—The amend-
ments made by section 2 shall not apply with respect to
conduct occurring before the date of enactment of this
Act.
Æ