Religious Accommodations in a New World: A Compliance Roadmap for Employers

WEBINAR

Religious Accommodations in a New World: A Compliance Roadmap for Employers

Monday

January

1999

10:00 AM

(Eastern)

The new reality:

The EEOC is showing no mercy when employers deny religious accommodation requests

Settlements in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and up are now the norm. In fact, the agency responsible for enforcing federal laws against religious harassment and discrimination expects employers to grant every request for a religious accommodation, and employees know it.

Gone are the days when employers could cite scheduling inconvenience as an excuse to make religious employees work their sabbath day or miss religious services. There’s even new guidance that says working from home is an acceptable accommodation during holy days — even those lasting a full month!

While many recent cases have focused on the rights of adherents to major religions like Christianity and Judaism, an EEOC press release celebrated having filed numerous lawsuits involving Muslims, Buddhists and Sabbatharians. Plus, a religion doesn’t have to be formal or have specific, documented beliefs. A recent federal court decision recognized as sincerely held a belief that men who followed their own version of an ancient Nordic religion were entitled to accommodations of their belief that Viking men must wear beards.

It’s a whole new world for employers, and we’ll help you navigate this minefield with specific steps you must take. You’ll leave with an action plan and air-tight policies to keep you out of court.

Webinar Agenda

Learn the basics of religious rights in the workplace and why making accommodations is absolutely crucial while the EEOC tests how far employers must go.

Discover popular accommodation requests for practitioners of major world religions and some minor ones, too.

Guard against fraud by learning what you can ask about an employee’s claimed religion or belief system to determine if the request is sincere.

Walk through the form you should use to assess every request and why each must go through the HR office before being rejected.

Understand what a “sincerely held religious belief” is, with plenty of examples.

Step through the religious accommodation process from beginning to end and compare your current approach to a best-practices format.

Learn exactly what kind of documentation you must have to show that making an accommodation creates an undue burden on your operations.

Understand how to handle competing religious practices and accommodations in the workplace, including those whose beliefs require proselytizing and those who want to be left alone.

Create social media policies that allow religious expression. Hint: Off-duty religious social media posts are almost always off-limits.

Create an accommodation process that balances business needs and religious requests.

Distinguish between sincerely held religious beliefs and insincere ones.

Create defensible undue hardship arguments with solid documentation.

Meet Anniken

Anniken Davenport is a noted employment law attorney and the legal analyst and senior editor of HR Employment Law Advisor. She has authored several books, including the Employer’s Practical Legal Guide. Anniken has served as a professor at Penn State University, where she taught business law and HR management, and she directed the Legal Studies Program at Wilson College.

Registration Bonuses

Religious Accommodation Requests

Everyone who signs up will receive our vital Religious Accommodation Requests document, which includes a detailed flowchart to help you navigate religious accommodation requests, and an accommodation request form, crucial for documenting religious accommodation requests.

30-Day Free Trial to The HR Weekly

You’ll also receive one month of exclusive access to The HR Weekly, our comprehensive service with all the HR advice and compliance tools to simplify your job … and to keep your organization out of court. So that you continue to benefit from The HR Weekly, we will continue your subscription after that for the then current rate, unless you tell us “no, thanks”—your choice.

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Recertification Credits

Business Management Daily is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDC) for SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® recertification activities.

This Program has been pre-approved for 1.25 HR (General) credit hours toward aPHR®, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™ and SPHRi™ recertification through HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®).

We promise you'll be satisfied

If this webinar fails to meet your needs in any way, we will refund 100% of your tuition – every penny you paid – but your course materials and registration bonuses will be yours to keep. No hassles, no questions asked.

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