Employer Not Required to Accommodate Bus Driver’s No Sunday Work Request, Third Circuit Holds

In Fouche v. New Jersey Transit, No. 11-3031, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 14524, (3rd Cir. July 16, 2012), a bus driver sued his employer under Title VII and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination for refusing to accommodate his religion-based request not to drive on Sundays. Rejecting the plaintiff’s claim, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals held that the plaintiff’s requested accommodation would have caused the employer an undue hardship, insofar as it would have required the employer to shift some of the Sunday driving to other drivers, and it would have resulted in a breach of the seniority provision of the union’s collective bargaining agreement.