The concept of "reasonable accommodation" emerges from a variety of laws and regulations promulgated in order to eliminate discrimination in the workplace that is based on, for example, an employee's age, religion, disability, gender, race and ethnicity, and so forth (Bohlander & Snell, 2004). Of these, Meiners, Ringleb and Edwards (1994) note that accommodation of religious worship and practices and the disabled tend to predominate. Beginning with the Title VII of the Civil Rights At of 1964, and continuing through to other Congressional legislation including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1973, the goal of these legislative actions has been to ensure that discrimination against protected classes of workers is ended and that employers undertake the creation and maintenance of efforts to ensure that individual rights are not violated. The call for "reasonable accommodation" does not mean that an employer must accommodate any and all demands made by employees, but rather that efforts must be made to allow employees freedom to practice their religion, adjust work schedules without undue hardship, and so forth (Bohlander & Snell, 2004).
             Legally, the notion of "reasonable accommodation" is most often addressed within the context of religious rights and the workplace needs of disabled individuals. Meiners, et al (1994) pointed out that for many decades, employers in the United States refused to make necessary adjustments to workplace environments or workers' schedules to permit the disabled to work or to allow individuals to freely practice their religion. Because of Congress's actions, today employers must ensure that workers are accommodated in terms of their right to have time off for religious holidays and observances, personal appearance, and religious conduct on the job. For example, it is necessary for an employer to reasonably accommodate the needs of workers to have time of...