Recently, the ACLJ was contacted by two different postal workers for the United States Postal Service (USPS) following an announcement by the USPS that it will revive an old scheduling formula that could make it more difficult for postal workers to seek and obtain a religious accommodation to observe the Sabbath.
From the information we’ve been provided, this old policy assigns relief days (days off) according to a specific formula and essentially requires that all carriers work some Saturdays. The old scheduling policy also relieves junior carriers, who are on auxiliary routes, from working on Saturdays or other work relief days for regular carriers – resulting in even greater difficulty for regular carriers to observe the Sabbath if necessary.
It would appear that the USPS’s revival of this old scheduling formula could allow less senior employees (junior carriers) to take the Sabbath and Sunday off, while senior employees like our two clients are required to work these days with no options for relief. The USPS’s policy not only appears to be targeted at forcing its full-time senior employees to work on Saturdays and Sundays, but it also removes all measures in place to accommodate employees who hold religious beliefs. However, the USPS’s prior practices demonstrate that accommodations can and have been made for many years without undue hardship.
