[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 92 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 92

    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

                            January 21, 1997

   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 
1997''.

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) As used in this subsection:
            ``(A) The term `employee' includes a prospective employee.
            ``(B) The term `undue hardship' has the meaning given the 
        term in section 701(j)(2).
    ``(2) 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, 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
            ``(B)(i) the 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 under this title for failure to provide a reasonable 
accommodation to a religious observance or practice of an employee 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.
    ``(4)(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 
overtime pay and compensatory time off, 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 take effect on the date of 
enactment of this Act.
    (b) Application of Amendments.--The amendments made by section 2 do 
not apply with respect to conduct occurring before the date of 
enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>