S. 3686 (112th): Workplace Religious Freedom Act of 2013

Introduced:
Dec 17, 2012 (112th Congress, 2011–2013)
Sponsor:
Sen. John Kerry [D-MA]
Status:
Died (Referred to Committee)

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. S. stands for Senate bill.

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Status

This bill was introduced on December 17, 2012, in a previous session of Congress, but was not enacted.

Progress
Introduced Dec 17, 2012
Referred to Committee Dec 17, 2012
Cosponsors
none
Committees

Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

A bill to amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to establish provisions with respect to religious accommodations in employment, and for other purposes.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

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Last updated Dec 17, 2012.
8 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

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GovTrack’s Bill Summary

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Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

12/17/2012--Introduced.
Workplace Religious Freedom Act of 2013 - Amends provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 related to equal employment opportunities to include in the term "religion" all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief, unless an employer demonstrates that the employer is unable, after initiating and engaging in an affirmative and bona fide effort, to reasonably accommodate to an employee's or prospective employee's religious observance or practice without undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's business.
(Current law makes no reference to an employer's affirmative and bona fide effort.) Provides that an employer's accommodation of an employee's practice of wearing religious clothing or a religious hairstyle, or of taking time off for a religious reason, imposes an undue hardship on the conduct of an employer's business in accommodating such practice only if the accommodation imposes a significant difficulty or expense on the conduct of the employer's business when considered in light of specified factors set forth in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, including:
(1) the nature and cost of the accommodation needed,
(2) the financial resources and size of the business, and
(3) the type of operation of the business.
Requires an employer's accomodation, before it may be considered a reasonable accomodation, to remove the conflict between employment requirements and the employee's religious practice.
Prohibits an accomodation from being a reasonable accomodation if it requires an employee to be segregated from customers or the general public.

House Republican Conference Summary

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No summary available.

House Democratic Caucus Summary

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The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

United States Code

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