The U.S. federal government issued guidance on Wednesday to encourage robust accommodations for religious liberty among federal employees, including telework options and modified work schedules, to ensure that federal workers have as much freedom as possible to practice their faith during the workday.
The Office of Personnel Management sent the heads and acting heads of all federal government agencies a memorandum, citing new policies to comply with the Trump administration’s push to ensure that “all executive departments and agencies (agencies) honor and enforce the Constitution’s guarantee of religious liberty” and end “any form of religious discrimination by the federal government.”
Additional justifications for the new guidance include Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in employment based on an individual’s religion and requires employers to accommodate employees’ religious beliefs and practices unless doing so would create an “undue hardship” for the employer.
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OPM contends the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of a Christian postal worker who had been forced to work Sundays affirmed this provision of the landmark federal law.
“Religious liberty is foundational,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a statement. “No federal employee should be forced to choose between their faith and their federal service. This guidance ensures agencies meet their legal obligations and treat these requests with the seriousness they deserve.”
The new guidance establishes accommodations that allow employees to take advantage of telework policies for religious reasons, noting that President Donald Trump has worked to roll back policies enabling federal employees to work remotely.
Accommodations als include “religious compensatory time off, flexible work schedules (including maxiflex work schedules), credit hours earned under flexible work schedules, annual leave, advanced annual leave, earned compensatory time off for overtime work and compensatory time off for travel, leave without pay, or other time off.”
The guidance urges federal government agencies to allow employees to work remotely “on days of religious significance, or on days immediately before such days, so as to avoid travel or commuting time which may interfere with preparation or observance.”
The memo urges agencies to allow telework for employees who “wish to take breaks in the workday to engage in fasting-related practices, such as prayer or rest, in a quieter or more private setting” and providing “flexibility for employees to engage in time-specific religious practices during breaks in the workday.”
“To the extent that modifications in work schedules do not interfere with the efficient accomplishment of an agency’s mission, an employee must be permitted upon request to earn and take religious compensatory time off for a religious observance or practice as required by the employee’s personal religious belief. An employee may earn religious compensatory time off by working overtime before and/or after the religious observance,” the guidance states.
Another option for a religious accommodation is a maxiflex schedule, which gives employees a mixture of “core hours” where they are required to be at work, unless in the event of an excused absence, and “flexible hours” where employees can choose their arrival and departure times from work.
“A maxiflex work schedule could allow an employee to attend a religious practice or observance during the flexible hours of the work schedule and continue to perform full time work without the need to take leave or other time off, which supports productivity and providing greater service to the public,” the guidance explains.
In response to an inquiry from The Christian Post asking whether there is a maximum number of days or hours employees could take off for religious reasons per year, OPM stressed that “additional details will vary agency to agency.”
The new OPM guidance comes days after Kupor, Trump’s pick to lead the federal government agency, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 49-46 vote on July 9.
As is the case with many of Trump’s cabinet nominations, the vote fell largely along party lines. Kupor received no support from Senate Democrats while Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was the only Republican to vote against his nomination.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
