New Jersey employment laws, and federal laws, may require that an employer grant an employee's requests for religious accommodations. Many employees are unaware that they may be entitled to reasonable accommodation based on their religious beliefs. Likewise, many employers fail to realize that they may be required to grant an employee a reasonable accommodation based on their religious beliefs.
A Linden based refinery just settled a religious discrimination lawsuit brought by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of a worker who was required to work Sundays for two months in 2006. Maybe the company failed to seek the advice of a New Jersey employment lawyer before making the employment decisions in this case. The Linden based refinery, ConocoPhillips, had been accused of discriminating against a pipe fitter at the refinery. The complaint alleged that the company refused the employee's request for a religious accommodation. The employee, a deacon and lay leader of his congregation, was told by the company that he would have to miss his Sunday services for two months because he was required to work Sundays.
The EEOC stepped in and took the position that the failure to accommodate the employee violated Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1967. There is a section in the statute which prohibits religious discrimination. The stature requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for an employee's good faith religious beliefs, so long as the request does not pose an undue hardship in the employer.
The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination is a state law which provides similar protections for an employee's religious beliefs in the State of New Jersey.
