• Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Our Mission
    • Testimonials
    • Service Areas
  • Services
    • Tax Services
    • Audit & Assurance
    • Accounting
    • Litigation Support
    • Valuation Advisory
    • Forensic Accounting
    • Business Consulting
  • Resources
    • Client Center
    • Online Tools
    • Important Sites
    • Timely Opportunities
  • MBA News
  • Careers
    • Senior Tax Accountant
    • Tax Manager
    • Bookkeeper / Accountant
  • Contact Us
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Linkedin
  • Savvy
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Our Mission
    • Testimonials
    • Service Areas
  • Services
    • Tax Services
    • Audit & Assurance
    • Accounting
    • Litigation Support
    • Valuation Advisory
    • Forensic Accounting
    • Business Consulting
  • Resources
    • Client Center
    • Online Tools
    • Important Sites
    • Timely Opportunities
  • MBA News
  • Careers
    • Senior Tax Accountant
    • Tax Manager
    • Bookkeeper / Accountant
  • Contact Us

Blog Post

Does Your Company’s Holiday Policy Pass Muster?

17 Dec 2014
Comment are off
MBA Site Administrator

As the table at the bottom of this article illustrates, the number of employers recognizing religious holidays celebrated by minority groups is small, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management.

Is that a problem? Probably not. Employers aren’t specifically required to recognize any particular holidays. However, depending upon your policies, you could be vulnerable to a religious discrimination charge. In a nutshell, you must be careful not to treat one religious group differently from another.

When is a Hardship “Undue”?

Here are some tests a court would consider when deciding whether you are justified in accommodating employees requesting a religious holiday that isn’t on your holiday schedule. Note: It’s easier to justify rejecting an accommodation request based on religion, than on a disability

Cost. What will you lose by granting a requested religious holiday? Will it be substantial in proportion to the size of your business?

Disruption. How difficult would it be to re-arrange employee work schedules, production schedules and other related issues to cover the absence of the employee requesting the day or days off?

Safety. Would the employee’s absence increase hazards to other employees in the workplace?

Contracts. Would granting the request force you to break any rules under, for example, a labor union contract due to the absence of the employee requesting time off?

What the Law States

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on religion, but doesn’t define what constitutes a religion. It does state, however, that it embraces “all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief.” The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), meanwhile, maintains that religious practices “include moral or ethical beliefs about what is right and wrong which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views.” In other words, the term is fairly open-ended.

If an employee asks you for a day off to observe a religious holiday that doesn’t happen to be on your holiday calendar, the EEOC does expect you to try to make a “reasonable accommodation,” just as you would for an employee with disabilities. You would be off the hook, however, if granting the request would cause an “undue hardship” to your business — a determination made on a case-by-case basis (see sidebar).

One popular way to deal with this issue is to offer employees one or two “floating” holidays — days they can elect to take off for any purpose, including birthdays. According to the SHRM survey, 43 percent of employers offer one floating holiday, and 29 percent offer two. Smaller proportions — 14, 9 and 5 percent, offer three, four and five floating holidays, respectively. (Floating holidays are not counted against employees’ personal day quota.)

Floating Holiday Issues

Following are some policy considerations regarding floating holidays:

  • How many to give: There is no magic number. But your decision should be made in the context of your overall paid time off policy (PTO), including fixed holidays, personal days, sick days and vacation days. You could add a pair of floating holidays while pulling out two fixed holidays for no net change in PTO.
  • Black-out days: You may have particular days of the year in which you need every hand on deck, and don’t permit floating holidays on those days. But if you need to set black-out days, be careful not to go overboard as that would defeat the purpose of the policy. Also be sure blackout days don’t correspond to known religious holidays that some employees might wish to tae.
  • Accrual of holidays: You can treat floating holidays in the same way you treat vacation days, requiring employees to reach particular tenure thresholds before earning them.
  • Carry-over of holiday allotments: To preserve the comparability to standard holidays, it may be best not to allow employees to bank unused floating holidays for future years. However, floating holidays should accrue over the course of each year in the same way as other forms of PTO, so that the employee gets credit for unused PTO the year he or she leaves the company.

As with any other personnel policy, how you handle floating holidays should be clearly documented in your employee handbook.

Floating holidays, while perhaps the most generous, aren’t the only way to accommodate an employee who wants to be away from work for a religious observance – particularly if it doesn’t require a full day. For example, you can also allow employees to adjust their work schedules on a given day by coming in early, working late, working through the lunch hour, or making up the hours by working longer days before or after the requested holiday. But again, be sure the arrangement is consistent with how you treat time-off requests for other religious groups.

Prevalence of Holidays

New Year’s Day 95%
Memorial Day 94%
Fourth of July* 76%
Labor Day 95%
Thanksgiving 97%
Day after Thanksgiving 76%
Christmas 97%
Christmas Eve 47%
Martin Luther King Day 37%
Presidents’ Day 35%
Veterans’ Day 20%
Columbus Day 16%
Good Friday 28%
First Day of Passover 3%


Easter was not included in the survey because it is always recognized on a Sunday.         
Other holidays not on the list include Kwanzaa, Eid al-Adha, and Eid al-Fitr.

*July 4th falls on a Saturday in 2015. 60% of employers report that July 3,2015 will be a recognized holiday, while 76% list July 4th as a holiday.

— Source: Society for Human Resource Management 2015 Paid Holiday Survey

About the Author
McClanathan, Burg & Associates, LLC. is a full service accounting firm. Our team members provide services including: Tax, Audit, Assurance and Accounting, Estate and Trust, Forensic Accounting, Litigation Support and Business Valuation.

Social Share

  • google-share

Search

RECENT NEWS

  • IRS Extends the Tax Filing and Paying Deadline for Individuals
  • Do you know the tax impact of your collectibles?
  • Making 2017 retirement plan contributions in 2018
  • When an elderly parent might qualify as your dependent
  • AMT Calculations: It’s Showtime

Categories

  • MBA Events
  • MBA News
  • Opinion & Editorial
  • Resources & Tips

Archives

  • March 2021
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • November 2013

Social Media

Facebook
Linked In
SavvyCard
Twitter

“Best
Congratulations to this year's honored business!
Featured in the Tampa Bay Times.
Click here to view my profile >>

Categories

  • MBA Events
  • MBA News

Archives

Sign Up For Newsletter

First Name:
Last Name:
Email Address (required):
Company:
Phone Number:
© 2014 McClanathan, Burg & Associates, LLC | Website Design by ThinkTankConnect.com

Send to Mobile

Text or Email McClanathan, Burg & Associates online business card to your mobile device using the form below
From the card you will be able to:
  • Get turn by turn directions to the company's office
  • Access a visual company directory of employee cards
  • Call, email or text the company
  • Share/Refer the company to others
  • Save the card to your phone's home screen for future access