Victory: Walmart Works With ACLJ To Provide Religious Accommodations for Employees Following Our Letter

As explained in more detail here, we received numerous contacts who were concerned that Walmart had implemented a new scheduling policy that appeared to no longer allow religious accommodations for its employees to attend church. We sent a letter to Walmart’s corporate counsel, asking that our clients’ religious beliefs about not working on Sundays be accommodated.

Thankfully, Walmart’s corporate counsel quickly reached out to us and worked with us to ensure that its policy would, in fact, provide religious accommodations for its employees under the law. We are grateful that Walmart – the largest employer in the U.S. – quickly worked to resolve this matter and for its commitment to protect the religious liberty of its employees.

For the greater part of our clients’ employment, Walmart has done a laudable job of respecting our clients’ beliefs by allowing them to work a 40-hour week without requiring them to work on Sundays.

Recently, however, numerous employees contacted us because they were told by local management and HR that if they continued to insist on not working on Sundays, Walmart couldn’t guarantee them a 40-hour week. That’s why we reached out to Walmart directly on behalf of our clients. We asked that Walmart work with us to ensure that the religious liberty of employees be protected, consistent with Title VII, in allowing our clients not to work on Sundays while also allowing them to remain full-time employees.

Within one week, Walmart took quick and affirmative steps in responding to our letter’s concerns. Not only were our clients told that they would be able to continue having Sundays off and keep their 40-hour work week, but we also received word from Walmart’s corporate leadership that it would accommodate our clients’ religious beliefs about not working on Sundays.

We applaud Walmart’s prompt actions in respecting and accommodating the religious beliefs of its employees. Walmart’s founder, Sam Walton, had a deep respect for religious faith and for this country’s protections of personal freedom. He would be proud of how the company he started long ago strives to reflect those values to this day.

We thank Walmart for working with us to bring this matter to a positive and purposeful resolution.