Bereavement Leave: Reasonable Religious Accommodation Under Title VII?
Author: Beth P. Zoller, XpertHR Legal Editor
August 20, 2013
A recent 7th Circuit case serves as a reminder to employers considering requests for leave accommodations based on religion that they should proceed cautiously and engage in the interactive process, evaluating each request on a case-by-case basis and asking for more information where needed. Employers should also be aware that religious beliefs and practices are broadly defined under Title VII (and similar state and local law) and, as a result, a range of activities and circumstances may fall under its purview.
In the case, Adeyeye v. Heartland Sweeteners LLC, (7th Cir. 2013), a Nigerian born employee (Sikiru Adeyeye) sent a written request to his employer (Heartland) seeking an extended unpaid leave of absence to attend his father's funeral in Nigeria and participate in ceremonial rites, duties and customs involving animal sacrifices. Adeyeye notified Heartland that failing to attend would mean "death" for his family. However, Heartland denied the request.
Despite the denial, Adeyeye traveled to Nigeria for the funeral and ceremonies. When Adeyeye was terminated shortly after returning to work, he filed a religious discrimination claim under Title VII claiming that Heartland failed to provide him with a reasonable religious accommodation. The trial court dismissed the suit, holding that Adeyeye failed to provide notice that a religious issue was involved in his request for unpaid leave and Adeyeye appealed the dismissal to the 7th Circuit.
Title VII requires employers to provide employees with reasonable accommodations based on religion unless it would cause the employer "undue hardship". The 7th Circuit determined that whether Heartland's refusal to provide Adeyeye with bereavement leave was, in effect, a denial of a request for religious accommodation under Title VII was an issue of fact to be resolved by the jury. According to the court, Title VII defines religion broadly, protects all "sincerely held religious beliefs", and "a genuinely held belief that involves matters of the afterlife, spirituality, or the soul, among other possibilities, qualifies as religion under Title VII." Title VII protections are not limited to familiar and well-known religions and may include such practices as veganism as well as other spiritual, moral and philosophical beliefs.
Despite the fact that Adeyeye's request did not reference his religion directly, the court ruled that a reasonable jury could determine that references to spiritual activities, funeral ceremonies and rites, animal sacrifices and "potential consequences in the afterlife" sufficiently notified Heartland that Adeyeye was in fact requesting a religious accommodation. Accordingly, the court held that Heartland was obligated to engage in the interactive process and further inquire as to the nature of the request for time off to ascertain if religious practices were at issue.
The court also determined that a claim the leave request would cause undue hardship for the employer should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis considering the circumstances involved with each request for time off. Here, the court rejected Heartland's claim that it would suffer an undue hardship by providing leave to Adeyeye maintaining that employers frequently "manage their work around employees' vacations and medical leaves that may last several weeks or even longer." The court further noted that Adeyeye's position was one with significant turnover that could be staffed by temporary workers. It also rejected Heartland's claim that it had provided Adeyeye with a reasonable accommodation by offering that he resign and attend to the religious obligation with the possibility of rehire as Title VII did not require employees to "sacrifice their jobs to observe their religious practices."
This case puts employers on notice that when facing requests for time off from work to participate in religious activities or spiritual ceremonies, or as in this case, bereavement leave, the employer has a duty to follow up and ask whether a religious accommodation issue is involved rather than waiting for the employee to raise the issue.