The answer to this is yes. Our firm’s founder, Stuart Rudner, was actually inspired to go into employment law in the first place because he was inspired by hearing stories of his grandmother’s youth, and how her employers had forced her to work on sacred religious holidays when work was prohibited by her faith.
While religious holidays may be difficult to schedule, they fall under a protected ground under human rights legislation that must be accommodated. It is important to note however that these accommodations may look different for every individual, and employers and employees can work together to come up with a workable solution. This can include options such as overtime, unpaid time off, lieu time, a compressed work week, or some combination thereof in order to make things work.