Page:Groff v. DeJoy.pdf/10

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Cite as: 600 U. S. ____ (2023)

5

Opinion of the Court

that obligated employers “to make reasonable accommodations to the religious needs of employees” whenever that would not work an “undue hardship on the conduct of the employer’s business.” 29 CFR § 1605.1 (1968).

Between 1968 and 1972, the EEOC elaborated on its understanding of “undue hardship” in a “long line of decisions” addressing a variety of policies. Hardison, 432 U. S., at 85 (Marshall, J., dissenting); see Brief for General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists as Amicus Curiae 10–22 (collecting decisions). Those decisions addressed many accommodation issues that still arise frequently today, including the wearing of religious garb^[1] and time off from work to attend to religious obligations.^[2]

EEOC decisions did not settle the question of undue hardship. In 1970, the Sixth Circuit held (in a Sabbath case) that Title VII as then written did not require an employer

↑ See, e.g., EEOC Dec. No. 71–779, 1970 WL 3550, *2 (Dec. 21, 1970) (no undue hardship in permitting nurse to wear religious headscarf).
↑ See EEOC Dec. No. 71–463, 1970 WL 3544, *1–*2 (Nov. 13, 1970) (no “undue hardship” or “unreasonable burde[n]” for employer to train coworker to cover two-week religious absence); EEOC Dec. No. 70–580, 1970 WL 3513, *1–*2 (Mar. 2, 1970) (manufacturing employer asked to accommodate sundown-to-sundown Sabbath observance did not carry “burden … to demonstrate undue hardship” where it did not address “whether another employee could be trained to substitute for the Charging Party during Sabbath days, or whether already qualified personnel ha[d] been invited to work a double shift”); EEOC Dec. No. 70–670, 1970 WL 3518, *2 (Mar. 30, 1970) (no “undue ‘hardship’ ” in having other employees take on a few more on-call Saturdays per year); see also EEOC Dec. No. 70–110, 1969 WL 2908, *1–*2 (Aug. 27, 1969) (employer could not deny employee all Sunday “overtime opportunities” on basis of employee’s religious inability to work Saturday, where others not working the full weekend had been accommodated, notwithstanding employer’s claim of “considerable expense”); EEOC Dec. No. 70–99, 1969 WL 2905, *1 (Aug. 27, 1969) (no obligation to accommodate seasonal employee unavailable for Saturday work, where employer showed both “no available pool of qualified employees” to substitute and a “practical impossibility of obtaining and training an employee” to cover one day a week for six weeks).

[1] See, e.g., EEOC Dec. No. 71–779, 1970 WL 3550, *2 (Dec. 21, 1970) (no undue hardship in permitting nurse to wear religious headscarf).

[2] See EEOC Dec. No. 71–463, 1970 WL 3544, *1–*2 (Nov. 13, 1970) (no “undue hardship” or “unreasonable burde[n]” for employer to train coworker to cover two-week religious absence); EEOC Dec. No. 70–580, 1970 WL 3513, *1–*2 (Mar. 2, 1970) (manufacturing employer asked to accommodate sundown-to-sundown Sabbath observance did not carry “burden … to demonstrate undue hardship” where it did not address “whether another employee could be trained to substitute for the Charging Party during Sabbath days, or whether already qualified personnel ha[d] been invited to work a double shift”); EEOC Dec. No. 70–670, 1970 WL 3518, *2 (Mar. 30, 1970) (no “undue ‘hardship’ ” in having other employees take on a few more on-call Saturdays per year); see also EEOC Dec. No. 70–110, 1969 WL 2908, *1–*2 (Aug. 27, 1969) (employer could not deny employee all Sunday “overtime opportunities” on basis of employee’s religious inability to work Saturday, where others not working the full weekend had been accommodated, notwithstanding employer’s claim of “considerable expense”); EEOC Dec. No. 70–99, 1969 WL 2905, *1 (Aug. 27, 1969) (no obligation to accommodate seasonal employee unavailable for Saturday work, where employer showed both “no available pool of qualified employees” to substitute and a “practical impossibility of obtaining and training an employee” to cover one day a week for six weeks).

[1]

[2]