[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2071 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







104th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2071

    To amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to establish 
 provisions with respect to religious accommodation in employment, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 12, 1996

   Mr. Kerry introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
         referred to the Committee on Labor and Human Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to establish 
 provisions with respect to religious accommodation in employment, and 
                          for other purposes.

    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 
1996''.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENT.

    (a) Definitions.--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) As used in this subsection, the term `undue hardship' means 
an accommodation requiring significant difficulty or expense. For 
purposes of determining whether an accommodation requires significant 
difficulty or expense, the factors to be considered shall include--
            ``(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.''.
    (b) Employment Practices.--Section 703 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 
2000e-2) is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(o)(1) For purposes of determining whether an employer has 
committed an unlawful employment practice under this title by failing 
to provide a reasonable accommodation to the religious observance or 
practice of an employee or prospective employee, 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 religious observance or 
        practice of the employee or prospective employee; or
            ``(B)(i) the employee or prospective employee demonstrates 
        to the employer the availability of an alternative 
        accommodation less onerous to the employee or prospective 
        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.
    ``(2) 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 would be 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 would voluntarily 
        exchange shifts or job assignments, or voluntarily make some 
        other arrangement between the employees.
    ``(3)(A) 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.
    ``(B) As used in this paragraph, the term `premium wages' includes 
premium overtime pay, pay for night, weekend, or holiday work, and pay 
for standby or irregular duty.''.

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 
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 
enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>