Bill Text: NY A04358 | 2025-2026 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires employers to engage in a good faith cooperative dialogue with employees who request accommodation due to a religious practice or observance.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2025-02-04 - referred to governmental operations [A04358 Detail]
Download: New_York-2025-A04358-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4358 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY February 4, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. FALL -- read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to requiring employers to engage in a good faith cooperative dialogue with employees who request accommodation due to a religious practice or observance The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 10 of section 296 of the executive law, as 2 amended by chapter 166 of the laws of 2000, paragraph (a) as amended by 3 chapter 154 of the laws of 2019, and paragraph (b) as amended and para- 4 graphs (c) and (d) as added by chapter 539 of the laws of 2002, is 5 amended to read as follows: 6 10. (a) It shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice for any 7 employer, or an employee or agent thereof, to impose upon a person as a 8 condition of obtaining or retaining employment, including opportunities 9 for promotion, advancement or transfers, any terms or conditions that 10 would require such person to violate or forego a sincerely held practice 11 of [his or her] such person's religion, including but not limited to the 12 observance of any particular day or days or any portion thereof as a 13 sabbath or other holy day or religious holiday in accordance with the 14 requirements of [his or her] such person's religion or the wearing of 15 any attire, clothing, or facial hair in accordance with the requirements 16 of [his or her] such person's religion, unless, after engaging in a bona 17 fide effort which shall include a cooperative dialogue, the employer 18 demonstrates that it is unable to reasonably accommodate the employee's 19 or prospective employee's sincerely held religious observance or prac- 20 tice without undue hardship on the conduct of the employer's business. 21 Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, an employee 22 shall not be entitled to premium wages or premium benefits for work 23 performed during hours to which such premium wages or premium benefits 24 would ordinarily be applicable, if the employee is working during such EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD08678-01-5A. 4358 2 1 hours only as an accommodation to [his or her] such employee's sincerely 2 held religious requirements. Nothing in this paragraph or paragraph (b) 3 of this subdivision shall alter or abridge the rights granted to an 4 employee concerning the payment of wages or privileges of seniority 5 accruing to that employee. 6 (b) Except where it would cause an employer to incur an undue hard- 7 ship, no person shall be required to be present or remain at [his or8her] such person's place of employment during any day or days or portion 9 thereof that, as a requirement of [his or her] such person's religion, 10 [he or she] such person observes as [his or her] such person's sabbath 11 or other holy day or religious holiday, including a reasonable time 12 prior and subsequent thereto for travel between [his or her] such 13 person's place of employment and [his or her] such person's home, 14 provided however, that any such absence from work shall, wherever prac- 15 ticable [in the reasonable judgment of] and as agreed upon between the 16 employer and the employee pursuant to a cooperative dialogue, be made up 17 by an equivalent amount of time and work at some other mutually conven- 18 ient time, or shall be charged against any leave with pay ordinarily 19 granted, other than sick leave, provided further, however, that any such 20 absence not so made up or charged, may be treated by the employer of 21 such person as leave taken without pay. 22 (c) It shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice for an employer to 23 refuse to permit an employee to utilize leave or to refuse to engage in 24 a cooperative dialogue requested by an employee, as provided in para- 25 graph (b) of this subdivision, solely because the leave will be used for 26 absence from work to accommodate the employee's sincerely held religious 27 observance or practice. 28 (d) As used in this subdivision: (1) "undue hardship" shall mean an 29 accommodation requiring significant expense or difficulty (including a 30 significant interference with the safe or efficient operation of the 31 workplace or a violation of a bona fide seniority system). Factors to be 32 considered in determining whether the accommodation constitutes an undue 33 economic hardship shall include, but not be limited to: 34 (i) the identifiable cost of the accommodation, including the costs of 35 loss of productivity and of retaining or hiring employees or trans- 36 ferring employees from one facility to another, in relation to the size 37 and operating cost of the employer; 38 (ii) the number of individuals who will need the particular accommo- 39 dation to a sincerely held religious observance or practice; and 40 (iii) for an employer with multiple facilities, the degree to which 41 the geographic separateness or administrative or fiscal relationship of 42 the facilities will make the accommodation more difficult or expensive. 43 Provided, however, an accommodation shall be considered to constitute 44 an undue hardship if it will result in the inability of an employee to 45 perform the essential functions of the position in which [he or she] 46 such employee is employed. 47 (2) "premium wages" shall include overtime pay and compensatory time 48 off, and additional remuneration for night, weekend or holiday work, or 49 for standby or irregular duty. 50 (3) "premium benefit" shall mean an employment benefit, such as 51 seniority, group life insurance, health insurance, disability insurance, 52 sick leave, annual leave, or an educational or pension benefit that is 53 greater than the employment benefit due the employee for an equivalent 54 period of work performed during the regular work schedule of the employ- 55 ee.A. 4358 3 1 (4) "cooperative dialogue" shall mean the process by which an employer 2 and employee engage in good faith written or oral dialogue concerning 3 such employee's needs for accommodation regarding such employee's obser- 4 vance of a sincerely held practice of such employee's religion, poten- 5 tial accommodations that may address such employee's accommodation 6 needs, and the difficulties that such potential accommodations may pose 7 for such employer. 8 In the case of any employer other than the state, any of its political 9 subdivisions or any school district, this subdivision shall not apply 10 where the uniform application of terms and conditions of attendance to 11 employees is essential to prevent undue economic hardship to the employ- 12 er. In any proceeding in which the applicability of this subdivision is 13 in issue, the burden of proof shall be upon the employer. If any ques- 14 tion shall arise whether a particular position or class of positions is 15 excepted from this subdivision by this paragraph, such question may be 16 referred in writing by any party claimed to be aggrieved, in the case of 17 any position of employment by the state or any of its political subdivi- 18 sions, except by any school district, to the civil service commission, 19 in the case of any position of employment by any school district, to the 20 commissioner of education, who shall determine such question and in the 21 case of any other employer, a party claiming to be aggrieved may file a 22 complaint with the division pursuant to this article. Any such determi- 23 nation by the civil service commission shall be reviewable in the manner 24 provided by article seventy-eight of the civil practice law and rules 25 and any such determination by the commissioner of education shall be 26 reviewable in the manner and to the same extent as other determinations 27 of the commissioner under section three hundred ten of the education 28 law. 29 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
