Washington Employers Must Actively Try to Accommodate Religion

A Yakima, Wash., nursing facility may have failed to accommodate a Christian worker’s faith needs by not giving her all the time she sought off for religious holidays and helping find a job that allowed her to observe her Sabbath, a divided Washington Court of Appeals ruled.

The decision Tuesday marked the first time a court in the state defined “reasonable accommodation” and “undue hardship” under the religious bias provisions of Washington’s Law Against Discrimination. The appeals court looked to federal case law and state regulations in partially reviving Adelina Suarez’s suit arising from her employment at Yakima Valley School. ...