The Church State Council has developed an enviable national reputation for our representation of employees who suffer religious discrimination in the workplace. Consistent with the golden rule, the Council represents persons of any and all faiths.
As a Seventh-day Adventist organization, the Council’s attorneys have years of experience representing Adventist church members denied accommodation for their Sabbath observance, or otherwise suffering some form of religious discrimination.
Our litigation priorities include:
- Failure to hire cases – job applicants who disclose their need for a scheduling accommodation for Sabbath observance, church attendance, choir practice, you name it – you have a right to participate in your religious community on a regular basis.
- Religious Harassment – too often, employees are pressured into doing things that violate their faith. In addition to being asked to work on Sabbath, or denied accommodation for refusing the Covid-19 vaccine, nurses or doctors may be disciplined for refusing to participate in medical procedures that violate their faith. It is unlawful for an employer to require an employee to “alter or amend” their religion in order to obtain or keep a job.
- Failure to accommodate --this was the subject of the Council’s recent victory in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of postal worker, Gerald Groff, who was denied accommodation for his observance of Sunday as the Lord’s day.The Supreme Court held that to avoid providing accommodations, an employer must demonstrate that doing so would result in an undue hardship, which must involve substantial costs in light of the company’s size and scope.We expect far fewer of these cases in the future, but this has constituted our primary body of cases.