The U.S. Supreme Court returns to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act 1964, which prohibits discriminations at the workplace based, also, on religion.  

 

Gerald Groff was an employee working for the U.S. Postal Service. He was hired under an employment contract that provided that he was not required to work on Sundays. As a result of an agreement between the U.S. Postal Service and Amazon, regulating the Sunday delivery activities giant of the e-commerce, Groff was no longer allowed to abstain from working on Sundays: at the first moment, the Postal Service had managed to arrange a roster such that Groff was guaranteed Sunday rest; subsequently, however, the roster was no longer available. At the employee's refusal to work on Sundays, the Postal Service had proceeded to sanction Groff, ultimately forcing him to resign.

 

Under Title VII, employers are mandated to accommodate the religious practices of their employees if it does not pose an "undue hardship" to their business. In the case of the U.S. postal service, with 600,000 employees available to shift and work on Sundays, the Court ruled unanimously in favor of the plaintiff. Title VII indeed requires that an employer who denies a religious accommodation must prove the existence of a substantial increase in costs; the argument that forcing other employees to work overtime constitutes undue hardship is not sufficient to satisfy the burden of proof.   

 

(Comment by Tania Pagotto)