Swift offered to change break times for Muslim workers to accommodate the Ramadan fast — which offer caused resentment among non-Muslim workers who had to work longer periods without a break as a result. That in itself shows that as workplaces introduce “reasonable accommodation” of Sharia in order to please their Muslim workers, non-Muslims are often discommoded, creating tensions that we are going to see much more of in the months and years ahead.
In this case, the workers who have been fired are those Muslims who walked off their job in protest when Swift looked as if it wasn’t going to allow the Ramadan accommodation, and who didn’t return when asked. It was a clear-cut case, but that didn’t matter to the EEOC.
“EEOC: Swift acted with bias: Muslims were discriminated against by the meatpacker, the federal panel determines,” by David Migoya for The Denver Post, September 1 (thanks to Bill):
A federal panel said Monday that it believed Greeley meatpacker JBS Swift violated the civil rights of more than 100 Somali Muslims it fired last year after a walkout over religious differences at the height of Ramadan, Islam’s holiest time.
The determination by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission comes exactly a year after hundreds of Somali workers left the slaughterhouse because the company wouldn’t accommodate requests for prayer time.
A Swift spokesman said Monday that the EEOC determination was not unexpected but that the timing of the decision was “disappointing” as the meatpacker has worked to make “this year’s Ramadan work out smoothly.”
“We don’t think it’s coincidental,” Chandler Keys said of the EEOC decision arriving during the holy month, which began Aug. 24. “We’re focused on this year’s Ramadan.”
The Muslim workers had demanded time to pray at sundown, the end of a dawn-to-dusk fast, a requirement of Islam during Ramadan. More than 300 workers walked out when told they could not break for the day’s final prayer. About 103 workers were fired days later, not for walking off the job but for not returning to work, Keys said.
The walkout touched off a storm of protests, mostly among workers of different religious faiths who railed at the request for religious accommodation. Federal law requires employers to accommodate the religious requests of its workers.
The EEOC determined Swift had violated a portion of the civil-rights act that forbids certain forms of discrimination in employment. Specifically, it said Swift engaged in a “pattern and practice of discrimination” that included harassment, a hostile work environment, discriminatory job assignments and discipline. It also said Swift denied religious accommodation and retaliated against workers who complained about it.
The determination means Swift and the fired Muslim workers can sit with a mediator to negotiate terms of a settlement. If unable to reach an accord, which could include reinstatement of the fired workers or remuneration, the EEOC or the workers can sue the company….