OPM memo urges telework, flexible schedules, and leave options to prevent conflicts between faith and federal service
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has issued formal guidance directing federal agencies to take active steps to accommodate religious observance in the workplace. Reported by Fox News Digital, the July 2025 memorandum emphasizes that no federal employee should have to choose between their job and their faith and encourages agencies to use telework, flexible work hours, and both paid and unpaid leave to meet “reasonable” religious accommodation requests.
The guidance, signed by Acting OPM Director Scott Kupor, cites both Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Groff v. DeJoy, which raised the threshold for denying religious accommodations in the workplace. In that case, the Court held that employers must show a “substantial increased cost” before rejecting an accommodation request. According to the memo, federal agencies should adopt a “generous approach” consistent with this precedent (Fox News).
The new policy reflects a broader effort by the Trump administration to reframe religious liberty as a priority in workplace governance. Though OPM has issued prior guidance about scheduling accommodations for religious holidays and practices, the memo’s framing and breadth go further. It incorporates newer workplace arrangements like remote work and hybrid scheduling as preferred mechanisms for accommodating religious expression, and explicitly instructs agencies not to rely on rigid policies that could result in “inadvertent burdens” on observant employees.
Under the new guidance, managers are advised to reschedule mandatory events that fall on major religious holidays and to approve shift swaps or use of leave when conflicts arise. In practice, this could cover religious observances such as Islamic prayer times, Jewish Sabbath observance, Christian holy days, Hindu fasting periods, and other expressions of religious practice that intersect with work schedules.
The memo does not change the law but is expected to affect agency operations by encouraging supervisors and HR officials to view accommodation requests more favorably and flexibly. Legal experts note that such agency-level memos can influence future administrative decisions and may be cited in internal disputes or legal actions involving religious discrimination in the federal workforce.
Although OPM did not specify a formal compliance date, the agency stated that implementation should begin immediately, with additional training materials to follow later this summer. The guidance applies to all executive branch agencies and covers both full-time and part-time federal employees.
The memo’s legal framework draws heavily on Groff v. DeJoy, which overruled a decades-old interpretation of “undue hardship” under Title VII. The Court held that employers must show more than a de minimis burden when denying a religious accommodation, making it more difficult for agencies to rely on general inconvenience or low-level operational impacts as grounds for denial.
Commentary
This guidance represents a shift in how the federal government views religious liberty—not just as a legal compliance issue but as a workplace rights issue tied to modern labor tools. The core idea here is that accommodations should be made not only when employees ask but also in anticipation of the kinds of conflicts that religious practice can generate in rigid environments.
Telework, flexible hours, and the ability to swap shifts are no longer treated as fringe benefits but as legitimate pathways for compliance with civil rights laws. By officially promoting these options, the OPM memo moves religious accommodation into the mainstream of workforce policy.
One of the biggest changes may be cultural. Agencies are encouraged to think of religious accommodation not as a bureaucratic burden but as part of normal scheduling flexibility. This is particularly relevant as more federal workers perform jobs in hybrid or remote formats, where traditional scheduling conflicts may be more easily resolved through technology or asynchronous work.
Critically, the guidance does not remove the “undue hardship” test for employers. Instead, it raises the threshold for what qualifies as a hardship and instructs managers to err on the side of accommodation unless they can show real, measurable operational costs. That reflects the Supreme Court’s decision in Groff, but it also institutionalizes that principle within the administrative guidance of the federal government.
Ultimately, while the memo does not create new legal rights, it encourages a more accommodation-friendly posture that could affect day-to-day agency operations and give employees clearer expectations about their ability to practice their faith without employment consequences. Agencies will now be expected to adjust not only their policies but their workplace culture to meet these new expectations.
Federal agencies are expected to begin implementation immediately, with OPM planning to release additional training resources by late summer.
We are currently looking for a copy of the memo which has not yet been publicly released by OPM as of this writing.