Navigating the
New Religious Accommodation Requirements for
Employees
by John C. Getty, Esq. Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P. C.
Co-Authored by Jonathan C. Gardner, Law Clerk Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P. C.
The COVID-19 public health emergency brought many changes to the workforce, from greater work-from-home opportunities to reinventing physical workspaces. Although now abated, the pandemic continues to alter the workplace through evolving standards on religious accommodations for employees, now supercharged by new U. S. Supreme Court precedent.
In September 2021, the federal government required that many employers mandate that their employees become vaccinated. However, many Americans objected to the vaccines based on religious beliefs. Employers soon had to navigate the tension between their employees’ religious freedoms under federal and state law and complying with the federal vaccine mandates.
Here at home, Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order prohibiting state and local entities from issuing“ vaccine passports” and restricting businesses from requiring proof of vaccination from patrons or customers. Fla. Governor Exec. Order No. 21-81( Apr. 2, 2021). Months later, the Florida Legislature statutorily prohibited businesses from requiring vaccines. See § 381.00316, Fla. Stat. Importantly, Florida’ s COVID-19 statute required businesses and governmental entities to provide“ exemptions and reasonable accommodations for religious and medical reasons.” Id. at( 3)( c),( 4)( c). The State’ s reaction to the COVID-19 vaccination mandates reflected a growing trend to strengthen workplace protections against religious discrimination.
Both Florida— through the Florida Civil Rights Act— and federal law— through Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964— protect employees’ bona fide religious beliefs, requiring employers to reasonably accommodate such sincerely held beliefs that conflict with an employment requirement. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, accommodations for religious beliefs most commonly involved employees requesting days off or altered schedules for religious observances, exceptions to dress codes and similar matters. An employer is generally required to accommodate such requests unless it shows that doing so would be an undue hardship. Under this framework, an employer has two main ways to challenge a religious accommodation request. First, an employer could demonstrate that the employee did not have a bona fide religious belief, or at least not one that conflicts with an employment requirement. Second, an employer could show that the accommodation the employee requested— days off, exceptions to dress codes, and similar matters— constituted an undue hardship.
Until recently, employers took that second route because most federal and state courts relied on dicta from a 1970s Supreme Court
22 | THE DOCKET- APRIL 2025