[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5233 Introduced in House (IH)]

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 Representatives 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 ``unable'', and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(2) For purposes of paragraph (1), 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 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 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 accommodation.
    ``(3) It shall not be a defense to a claim of unlawful employment 
practice for failure to provide a reasonable accommodation that such 
accommodation would be in violation 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 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 voluntarily 
        exchange shifts or job assignments, or voluntarily 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 employer; 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 premium 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 subsection (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 amendments made by section 2 
shall not apply with respect to conduct occurring before the date of 
the enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>