religious holidays

Terminator

My company - a health care provider that operates 7 dyas a week, 365 days a year - provides accrued leave to staff in a combined pool for each employee to use for sick leave, vacation time, personal days, and holidays. In other words, if an employee takes a holiday, he or she must use time from that bank to cover it. Most employees find the time accrual pretty generous. Others, however, are constantly running up against their maximum allotment, and some are forced to take leave without pay because they have exhausted their leave.

One such employee who has exhausted her leave now wants time off without pay for a religious holiday. Although we always try to accommodate employee wishes in this regard, are we required to do so, particularly for an employee who constantly has exhausted her leave (for various reasons) and has been disciplined for excessive absebteeism?

hr92175

I think there was a post about religious holidays in another forum and it stated that you should ask the employee for proof from a Rabbi, Priest, etc. that working on this day conflicts with religious beliefs. I would probably say no for any other reason, but religious holidays can be tricky

Dutch2

Do you allow other ee's to take time off without pay when requested? Since you are open 365 a year, how to you normally handle time off for the most desirable dates (holidays)?

Terminator

We usually ask folks to sign up in advance for holidays they wish to take off. Sometimes employees are able to find on-call coverage for holidays. But sometimes we have to limit what an individual can take - for instance, they may have off on Christmas but have to work on Easter. For this particular employee it's not so much that we can't cover the hoilday but that she has continuously exhausted all of her leave time yet wants time off for holidays. I appreciate your input.