The Young Men's and Women's Hebrew Association ("YMHA" and "YWHA") in New York have agreed to pay $100,200 to settle an EEOC charge of religious discrimination brought by an employee.

The EEOC's investigation found that YMHA allegedly failed to provide a Christian employee a scheduling change to allow her to attend Sunday church services as well as meetings she attended as a leader in her church.

The Christian employee then allegedly faced retaliation by YMHA and was forced to quit in 2022.

The YMHA and the EEOC utilized the EEOC's pre-litigation conciliation process after the investigation, resulting in a conciliation agreement. The YMHA agreed to revise written policies, clearly communicate procedures for requesting religious accommodations, conduct annual anti-discrimination training, and more.

Source: https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/ymha-pay-100200-resolve-eeoc-religious-discrimination-and-retaliation-charge

Commentary

In the case above, a Jewish community-focused nonprofit is alleged to have discriminated against a Christian employee by failing to provide religious accommodations.

Nonprofits, including faith-based nonprofits, are not exempt from Title VII. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires employers with 15 or more employees to accommodate the sincerely-held religious beliefs of an employee, unless the ministerial exception applies to prevent the particular accommodation.

The ministerial exception is a doctrine that limits courts from interfering with the employment relationship between a religious institution and its ministers. It applies to employees who perform vital religious duties.

In this case, there is no indication the employee had religious duties as part of her job, so the employer should have engaged in an interactive process to consider her request for an accommodation to allow her to attend her religion's services.

During that process, the nonprofit should adhere to the appropriate standard:

In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision in Groff v. DeJoy, changed the previous 1977 "de minimus" framework for determining reasonable accommodations for religious practices under Title VII. Under the old standard, an employer could deny a request for a religious accommodation unless to grant it would require the employer to "bear no more than a de minimis cost".

Now, pursuant to Groff, employers have a new, and much higher, standard to meet when denying accommodations. Employers must grant religious accommodation requests unless to do so would result in "substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of [an employer's] particular business."

All nonprofits, including faith-based nonprofits, should consider the following to help avoid the risks:

· Publish a religious accommodation policy in clear language that describes how an employee, regardless of faith, can request an accommodation

· Train managers and supervisors regarding religious accommodations and why they must refer every request for an accommodation to those in the organization authorized to engage in the interactive process

· Document options and decisions

· Make sure the organization's own religious mission or traditions do not curtail or interfere with the interactive process for religious accommodations

The final takeaway is that, unless there is a ministerial exception, a religious nonprofit must comply with reasonable accommodation duties pursuant to Title VII.