Employee Religious Accommodation Notice Requirement Clarified

In the workplace, employees with sincerely held religious beliefs often keep those beliefs to themselves. However, when a work requirement — such as a dress code, mandatory weekend shifts and vaccination policies — interferes with that belief, employers need to be ready to appropriately respond to employee accommodation requests.

Under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), when an employee notifies their employer that a work requirement conflicts with their sincerely held religious belief, the employer must engage in a good-faith, interactive process to determine whether the employer can reasonably accommodate their religious belief in the workplace. However, the