{ the dental team } by Jodi Schafer, SPHR, SHRM-SCP


Religious Accommodation Requests to Dress Code Policies


We have a dress code policy that outlines appropriate attire for our clinical team. Our office provides uniform scrubs (a top, a coat and pant bottoms) to our hygienists and dental assistants and requires employees to wear these items for OSHA purposes and because they give our staff a unified, professional appearance. Recently we had a clinical employee request to wear a skirt instead of the scrub pants provided and cited religious reasons. Do we have to grant her request? We are concerned about this employee sitting split-legged chairside in a skirt, not to mention the potential OSHA compliance risks if the skirt does not provide adequate coverage of her legs. I’m not sure that this request is legitimate either as the employee has worked for us for several years without any com- plaints, but now all of a sudden wants us to make a change to our dress code policy to accommodate her religious beliefs. I’ve never had this happen before. How should I respond?


T


he timing and the legitimacy of this employee’s request, while perhaps suspicious, is not relevant. You really have no way


of validating whether or not this employee is truly devout and to be honest, you don’t want to know. What you need to instead focus on is whether or not this accommoda- tion request would pose an undue hardship to your practice. If the answer is no, then you need to grant her request. If the answer is yes, then you need to be able to articulate what those hardships are to your employee and determine if there is another accommo- dation you could make that would still meet her needs without being so burdensome to you. The back-and-forth conversations you have with your employee regarding this issue and your careful consideration of her request is referred to as the ‘interactive process’ and you are required to do this by the Equal Em- ployment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination.


So, step number one would be have your em- ployee put her request for a religious accom- modation to your current dress code in writ- ing. Step number two would be to determine if her request to wear a skirt instead of scrub


30 focus | NOV/DEC 2016 | ISSUE 6


You may determine through follow-up conversations with her that there is another alternative you could offer. For example, per- haps the employee could wear heavy stock- ings under her skirt and that would protect her legs enough to alleviate your OSHA con- cerns. You could address the concern about her sitting split-legged chairside in a skirt by mandating the minimum length of her skirt and/or require that she wear shorts under- neath. From a job efficiency standpoint, you could require that the tightness of her skirt not restrict movement necessary to perform her job functions.


bottoms would pose an undue hardship to the practice. You expressed concern over de- creased mobility that wearing a skirt would cause for sitting and performing essential job functions chairside. You also expressed po- tential OSHA risks that could be created by having exposed legs in a clinical environment with sharp objects and biological hazards. If these concerns are legitimate and would pose an undue hardship to your practice, then you would have a defensible reason for denying her request. It’s not enough to simply say ‘no’ though. Because you have an obligation to engage in the interactive process, you have to communicate your concerns to the employee and see what her response is.


Your employee doesn’t necessarily have to like your alternatives. As long as you can show that you took her accommodation re- quest seriously, that you considered whether or not it would pose an undue hardship to the practice and (if so) considered possible alternatives that would still meet her needs then you’ve done your part. It is then up to the employee to decide if she is willing to abide by the accommoda- tions you CAN make. f


Jodi Schafer, SPHR, SHRM-SCP is owner/general partner of Human Resource Management Services, LLC. Visit hrmservices.biz.


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