The Chicago Police Department tried to reasonably accommodate an employee who asked for Sundays off to attend church, says an appellate court, in rejecting the worker's failure to accommodate claim.

According to Thursday's ruling in Latice Porter v. City of Chicago by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, immediately before taking Family and Medical Leave Act leave, Ms. Porter, a senior data entry specialist with the Chicago Police Department, had a schedule that gave her Sundays off, which allowed her to attend church.

Upon her return in July 2006, she was given Fridays and Saturdays off instead. When she complained, accommodations offered to her included giving her a late starting time on Sundays, which would have permitted her to attend services. She never responded to this option, however.

Ms. Porter filed a complaint with the Chicago Commission on Human Relations alleging religious discrimination in August 2006, and in September 2006 filed a religion-based discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She requested medical leave in November 2006, and has not returned to work since, according to the ruling.

Ms. Porter filed suit in December 2008, charging the city with failing to accommodate her religious practices, disparate treatment and retaliation.

The city satisfied its duty to reasonably accommodate Ms. Porter's religious practices by offering her the later Sunday schedule, said a three-judge panel in its ruling.

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“As Porter sought to attend church services on Sunday mornings, this change in Porter's schedule would have eliminated the conflict between her work schedule and her religious practice, and there is no evidence that his change would have impacted Porter's pay or benefits in any way. Given these undisputed facts (her supervisor's) offer of a watch change was a reasonable accommodation," said the ruling, in upholding a lower court decision.

“Porter simply did not want to work the later watch, but that does not make the proposed accommodation unreasonable,” said the ruling. While the court has encouraged dialog between employers and employees who are seeking an accommodation, “We have not demanded the hand-holding Porter argues was lacking here,” said the ruling, which also upheld dismissal of Ms. Porter's disparate treatment and retaliation claims.