Undue Hardships

(1) Cost. An employer may assert undue hardship to justify a refusal to accommodate an employee's need to be absent from his or her scheduled duty hours if the employer can demonstrate that the accommodation would require costs similar to the regular payment of premium wages of substitutes. However, the infrequent payment of premium wages for a substitute or the payment of premium wages while a more permanent accommodation is being sought are not undue hardship. Also, administrative costs in providing the accommodation will not constitute undue hardship. Examples of administrative costs include those costs involved in rearranging schedules and recording substitutions for payroll purposes.

(2) Seniority Rights. Undue hardship would also be shown where a variance from a seniority system is necessary in order to accommodate an employee's religious practices when doing so would deny another employee his or her job or shift preference guaranteed by that system. Voluntary substitutes and swaps do not constitute an undue hardship to the extent the arrangements do not violate a bona fide seniority system. Nothing in the Statute or these Guidelines precludes an employer and a union from including arrangements for voluntary substitutes and swaps as part of a collective bargaining agreement.

Copyright 1996 David Trieloff, Esq.

Mr. Trieloff passed away on April 16th, 1998 and is sadly missed by the staff of the Business Know-How where he was a member of the volunteer staff.