I
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 5233
To amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with respect to religious
accommodation in employment.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 6, 1994
Mr. NADLER (for himself, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. SAXTON, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mrs.
MALONEY, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. CARDIN, and Mr. OWENS)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Education and Labor
A BILL
To amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with
respect to religious accommodation in employment.
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 1994’’.
SEC. 2. AMENDMENT.
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) For purposes of paragraph (1), an accommoda-
tion by the employer shall not be deemed to be reasonable
if—
‘‘(A) such accommodation does not remove the
conflict between employment requirements and the
employee’s religious observance or practice; or
‘‘(B)(i) the employee or prospective employee
demonstrates to the employer the availability of an
alternative accommodation less onerous to the em-
ployee 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.
‘‘(3) 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 is made in the employee’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 nec-
essary to satisfy religious requirements), shift, or job
assignment, that would not be available to any em-
ployee but for such accommodation; or
‘‘(B) the employee and any other employee vol-
untarily exchange shifts or job assignments, or vol-
untarily make some other arrangement between or
among them.
‘‘(4) As used in this subsection, the term ‘undue
hardship’ means an action requiring significant difficulty
or expense. For purposes of determining whether an action
requires significant difficulty or expense—
‘‘(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;
shall be included in the consideration of other factors.
‘‘(5) 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.’’.
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 the 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 the enactment of this
Act.
Æ