A federal appellate court has rejected the appeal of a civil rights case filed by a former Port Authority worker who claimed religious discrimination because he was required to work on the Jewish Sabbath.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Miller v. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey upheld a New Jersey federal judge's ruling that the accommodation of the schedule plaintiff Gary Miller requested would violate his union's collective bargaining agreement.

As a unionized utility systems maintenance worker at Newark Liberty International Airport, Miller was held to a neutral rotational schedule and was sometimes required to work at times that conflicted with his observance of the Jewish Sabbath, which prohibits work from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday.

Miller argued that the Port Authority didn't make a good-faith effort to find a reasonable accommodation for him.

But Miller was offered the option to swap shifts with other employees and was told that he could use vacation, personal excused time, or compensatory time, Third Circuit Judge Julio Fuentes wrote in the court's opinion, noting that Miller did use personal days for religious purposes on several different occasions in January and February 2015.

"First, the Port Authority made a good-faith effort to reasonably accommodate Miller's religious practices by allowing him to use paid time off … and to utilize voluntary mutual swaps with other utility service maintainers without restrictions," Fuentes said. "While Miller argues that he was not told he could use vacation time, the Port Authority submitted evidence showing that he was entitled to, and allowed to, take ten days of vacation time."

Miller argued that the Port Authority's voluntary swap policy is not a reasonable accommodation because the Port Authority did not do anything to facilitate the swaps, according to Fuentes.

"The record belies Miller's claims," Fuentes said.

Miller's supervisor "made a public announcement to other utility service maintainers that Miller would be looking for voluntary, mutual swaps and encouraged them to consider his request. Further, the Port Authority informed Miller that the schedule of all utility service maintainers would be made available to him and that a list of all Unit 329 staff with their personal telephone numbers could be found in the 'Watch Engineers Office' at [the airport]. Miller's dissatisfaction with the Port Authority's efforts to facilitate mutual swaps does not create a genuine dispute as to whether the accommodation was reasonable."

Cheryl Alterman, an in-house attorney for the Port Authority who handled the case, did not respond to a request for comment.

David Zatuchni, a Lambertville attorney who represents Miller, also did not respond to a request for comment.