OPM urges ‘generous approach’ to approving religion-based telework

Updated at 9:11 a.m., July 18.

The federal government’s dedicated HR agency on Wednesday encouraged agencies to adopt a “generous approach” to evaluating federal workers who request telework and other workplace flexibilities due to religious observances.

When President Trump first returned to the White House in January, he quickly moved to end both remote work and regularly scheduled telework for the vast majority of federal workers, allowing exceptions only for the spouses of military service members, due to their frequent relocation, and employees with a reasonable accommodation for a disability.

In his first public memo since his Senate confirmation last week, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor wrote that due to the 2023 Supreme Court case Groff v. DeJoy, which held that employers must demonstrate “substantial increased costs” if they deny an employee’s religious accommodation request, federal agencies should work to honor such requests from their employees.

“Agencies are encouraged to adopt a generous approach to approving religious accommodations, prioritizing employee needs while maintaining operational efficiency,” Kupor wrote. “Further, federal agencies must adhere to the requirements of Title VII [of the 1964 Civil Rights Act] and the Groff clarification of the ‘undue hardship’ standard when addressing religious accommodation requests.”

Agencies may use a number of workplace flexibilities to address an employee’s religious accommodation request, including telework, compensatory time off, flexible and maxiflex work schedule, and both paid and unpaid leave. Telework in particular can be useful to accommodate observing—or preparing to observe—a religious holiday or sabbath observance, to engage in religious fasting or other time-specific prayer observances.

“Telework is often a low-cost solution that aligns with the Groff standard, as on a limited basis, it typically does not impose substantial operational burdens,” Kupor wrote. “Agencies should assess telework requests by considering technological feasibility, job requirements, telework eligibility, and other relevant factors . . . Denials of telework accommodations for religious practices or observances must be justified with evidence of significant operational impact, per Groff.”

If telework or flexible work schedules cannot accommodate a religious observance request, Kupor said that employees can earn compensatory time off—that is, they would work overtime before or after the observance to cover for the hours they would otherwise miss, though without earning the premium pay associated with overtime work.

Kupor stressed that agencies must work collaboratively with employees to find a reasonable accommodation for their religious observance request.

“Upon receiving a request for a religious accommodation, agencies must engage in a good-faith interactive process with the employee to explore reasonable accommodations,” he wrote. “Agencies should assess whether an accommodation imposes a substantial burden on operations . . . Agencies are also reminded that religious accommodations may involve multiple, complementary or hybrid approaches to fully address an employee’s religious needs.”

OPM’s guidance come just days after the Veterans Affairs Department began an effort to scrutinize whether disabled employees there deserve their reasonable accommodations entitling them to continued telework.

VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz says that the purpose of the department's new reasonable accommodation guidance "is to ensure these accommodations remain necessary, reasonable and effective for both the employee and VA."

As the guidance states, “[A]gencies have an obligation to work with employees who request an RA based on a disability to ensure that qualified individuals with disabilities have equal opportunities to participate in the application process, perform the essential functions of their jobs, and enjoy the same benefits and privileges of employment as their non-disabled colleagues.”

This story was updated to include comments from the Veterans Affairs Department.