DENVER // Muslim workers sacked by a US slaughterhouse for walking off the production line to break their Ramadan fast have filed complaints with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), according to a spokesman for the workers.
"Some people have filed cases with the government, and most of us are hoping to get our jobs back," Graen Isse said. Mr Isse was one of 120 employees fired from the JBS Swift and Co plant in Greeley, Colorado, located 100km north of Denver. The sprawling factory employs more than 3,000 workers and slaughters tens of thousands of cattle daily. Strained relations between Mexican employees and Muslim colleagues, the majority of them from Somalia, erupted during Ramadan.
The problems began when Muslim employees asked management to shift the break time of the plant's afternoon shift to sunset. Non-Muslim employees then complained they were not given equal time off the production line, prompting managers to cancel the iftar break. After being fired, Muslim employees charged that Swift management used sexual harassment, physical abuse and threats of termination to keep them on the production line.
The workers said bathrooms were locked and water fountains shut off to prevent them from washing their hands and feet before kneeling in prayer. Managers also barred them from drinking water and eating their sunset iftar meal. The case has sparked outrage among religious protection groups in the US, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which urged respect in the increasingly diverse American workplace.
"Federal law requires companies to make reasonable accommodations for religious observance unless there is undue hardship," said Bruce H DeBoskey, the ADL mountain state's regional director. "Allowing employees to follow their religious obligations is not just a matter of legality - it is the right thing to do in a society that values religious liberty." Mr DeBoskey said it was unusual for US employers to fire factory workers over religious issues. "It's not common but it happens," he said.
A spokesman for the EEOC would not confirm Swift employees had filed official complaints against the company, saying the commission never commented on cases until they were taken up by a US court, at which point they become public record. US law protects religious freedom and asks US companies to accommodate their employees' faith when possible, but does not mandate freedom to pray during shift time. Legal analysts say Ramadan creates complex challenges at massive factories such as the one in Greeley because it is not simple for plant managers to shift break time for so many employees, and productivity can fall if hundreds of workers request special breaks.
The EEOC says religious discrimination cases make up between three per cent and five per cent of the cases filed every year. JBS Swift and Co has faced problems before with Muslim employees at factories in Texas, Nebraska and Kentucky. Three Somali workers at a Swift plant in Grand Island, Nebraska, lost their jobs in July 2007 when they walked off the production line without permission. Many employees have opted out of taking legal action, Mr Isse said. Negotiators from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union continue to negotiate with Swift to allow the Muslim employees to reapply for their former jobs.
Mr Isse said he, like many of the sacked workers, had not filed an EEOC complaint amid hopes the union would reach a settlement with Swift. Mr Isse said other employees originally planned to seek jobs elsewhere, but economic turmoil in the United States and rising unemployment figures have prompted them to try to mend relations with Swift employers. "It's not a good time to be out of work in this country," Mr Isse said.
gpeters@thenational.ae