The $365,000 in cash payments was settled last November, as we noted here. The settlement as a whole seems based on Muslim worker complaints that they were denied prayer breaks during work hours, and that they had to sign “forms acknowledging they would be required to handle pork.”
It is likely that the company devised those forms precisely in order to avoid religious discrimination lawsuits like this one. After all, there are plenty of jobs these workers could have taken that would not have required them to handle pork. No one was forcing them to take this one. And that is why this whole lawsuit is more redolent of a stealth jihad initiative to intimidate American businesses into conforming to Sharia norms, rather than a genuine discrimination case.
Stealth Jihad Update: “Bias suits settled with Gold’n Plump, job agency: Muslim workers receive $1.35 million under a religious discrimination settlement,” by Chris Serres in the Star Tribune, March 31 (thanks to Pamela):
A federal judge gave approval for Gold’n Plump Inc. and an employment agency to pay $1.35 million to settle lawsuits alleging religious discrimination against Muslims at a chicken processing plant in Cold Spring, Minn.
The money will go to 128 Somali Muslims who claim that St. Cloud-based Gold’n Plump violated their religious rights by refusing to allow them prayer breaks during work hours, and to another 28 workers who said a St. Paul employment agency, the Work Connection Inc., required them to sign forms acknowledging they would be required to handle pork.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigated the allegations and said it found cause to believe discrimination occurred, according to lawsuits filed last year.
In a settlement approved Tuesday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeanne Graham, Gold’n Plump will add a paid break during the second half of each shift to accommodate Muslim employees who wish to pray. The break is in addition to one early in the shift and lunch breaks required by law.
Does everyone get the break, or only Muslim employees? In other words, is equality of treatment and access dead, and Muslims already established as a special privileged class, or is it just on life support?
The Work Connection has agreed to provide offers of employment to the 28 job seekers who were turned away for not signing the “pork form.”
The $1.35 million settlement includes $985,000 for legal costs and $365,000 in cash payments to the 156 workers.