Muslim workers lose prayer dispute lawsuit against company

[Archae]

Source: WBAY, ABC affilate in Green Bay, WI

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A judge has ruled in favor of a meat company accused of mistreatment of Somali Muslim workers.

The Grand Island Independent reports (http://bit.ly/2dhhvKI ) that the judge ruled in U.S. District Court in Omaha last week that she found no evidence of a discriminatory motive on the part of JBS Swift, now known as JBS USA.

The lawsuit was filed in August 2010 by the federal Equal Opportunity Employment Commission on behalf of more than 80 Somali Muslims. It said JBS failed to make reasonable religious accommodations at its Grand Island plant, violating the workers’ civil rights since at least December 2007.

Read more: http://wbay.com/2016/09/27/muslim-workers-lose-prayer-dispute-lawsuit-against-company/

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Good. Those workers were there to work, not pray.

Now if only someone would get those uber-Christians to quit plastering so much Christian stuff all over their cubicles.

[Skittles]

1. ...

if prayer works, why did they need to leave their homeland?

[Igel]

2. The first is an inconvenience to the employer's business.

You hire employees to work. If they take off times during the day to do voluntary things, then you have to either stop production, replace them for a while, ask others to assume their workload, or just take a cut in production.

Having religious crap posted in cubicles is like having pictures of family and pets posted in cubicles. Unless it interferes with their productivity, leave it; unless it makes customers uncomfortable--and that can include religious stuff both Xian and Muslim or humor that's offensive to some and not others, religious/racial/political--leave it. If it's annoying to coworkers, oh well--everybody complains about everything.

[Archae]

17. The second paragraph I had some experience with.

I had to see a worker in an office, in her cubicle.

There were a number of Christian things posted, including a banner saying "The wages of sin are death"

The woman also had some books in plain sight, calling Darwin a fraud, condemning gays, etc, including Pat Robertson's "The New World Order."

It was bothering me, but I didn't say anything.

Haven't had to go back to that office since.

[Odin2005]

3. EDIT: Got the facts of the case wrong, nevermind.

Last edited Thu Sep 29, 2016, 08:14 AM - Edit history (1)

[phylny]

4. I don't think that's a fair assessment of the OP's post and comments.

If you are hired to work a shift and you need to take multiple breaks at specific times that would interrupt the flow of production and cause others to pick up your work, then the job is not suitable for you. If you have the personal need to pray at specific times, then you need to find a job where it is possible for you to do so.

Now, I disagree with the OP on what people post on their cubicles. If the office has no prohibition against what you choose to put in your personal work space, then you should be able to put up what pleases you, in accordance with the rules of the company. I don't care what someone puts up in their work space.

[bighart]

5. Can you point to cases where any other religion is allowed

to stop work for practice of their religion on a multiple times per day basis?

Religious practices are for your time not time you are being paid to do a job.

[Taitertots]

7. Their unreasonable feelings are not our problem

Their expectations are unreasonable and they should be rejected. Their feeling alienated is the result of their own alienating religious views.

[patsimp]

8. agreed

[Coventina]

9. If I am remembering the facts correctly on this case, the company had tried to accommodate them

but the workers kept demanding more and more until it actually hindered the flow of production.

If your religion demands that you do certain things that are not compatible with your job, then it is not up to the job to accommodate you, you need to find a job that will.

That would be like a Hindu trying to work there and claiming he shouldn't have to come into contact with the beef.

[Yo_Mama]

16. It was really more that they had been accommodating them when they were very few,

but that when the numbers hired rose to a certain level, they were not able to accommodate them any more. Having one person off a line is very different from having ten or fifteen off. One person was similar to a line worker having to take an unscheduled bathroom break.

It was also the time of year - the days were very short so they were trying to cram all the specified prayers into the work day, which was not possible when trying to maintain workflow.

[Massacure]

19. Funny story actually...

My dad works in a distribution center for food products. I don't remember if it was pork or beef, but he once told me a story about him loading up some sort of meat product onto a semi trailer. Anyways, the driver that was sent to pick up the trailer had a cow when he learned what the shipment was and absolutely refused to haul the load. The shift manager called the trucking company up and complained about the driver. I don't know what repercussions the driver faced, but I do know that they sent someone else out to pick up the trailer.

[Odin2005]

21. Oh, thanks, that changes a lot.

I was assuming that the workplace was just making no effort to accomodate, My bad!

[Adrahil]

10. I'm a pastafarian. I demand a pasta option in the cafeteria.

Seriously... demanding multiple breaks at specific times is NOT a reasonable demand in that kind of job. At least not in my opinion.

[Massacure]

18. I'm going to play devil's advocate... let us change the scenario a bit

I'm a diabetic. I ask for two ten minute breaks to test my blood sugar and a 30 minute meal break, and I ask that these breaks me scheduled at the same time every day. Do you still feel that is an unreasonable request?

[EX500rider]

20. medical requests are not the same as religious requests.

[Yo_Mama]

15. If living in a multi-cultural society causes them to feel alienated, they have to change.

The same is true for Christians, Jews, Bnai-Brith, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, Wiccans, etc.

The reality is that American society is not set up for individuals of one faith, but for individuals of all convictions (including a strict atheist/rationalist bent).

Really, this was not even a religious dispute, but a cultural dispute. In a majority Muslim nation, the workplaces can be organized so that standard prayer breaks are taken. In Saudi Arabia, for example, the stores all shut down for them for 10 or 15 minutes. This is not possible in a multi-cultural society, but there is a degree of culture shock for those moving to the US (or any such society) from a monoculture.

[molova]

6. Is the judge a liberal or conservative?

I want to know the name of the judge

[Igel]

11. Doesn't matter.

I'm Xian, and the particulars included not eating pork/shellfish and keeping a sunset-to-sunset Saturday sabbath. In the spring there's a 1-week period of no leavening. And there were other sabbaths in the spring and fall.

Then I went to college and there were times when there was nothing I could eat. Everything contained dead pig. Or (in the spring) might be leavened.

It was easy for the college to accommodate this dietary requirement when they were alerted to the issue it was resolved most of the time. Jewish students had the same problem. Every once in a while some asst. manager would screw up, and the response from students was annoyance and the salad bar looked good. I guess now it would be a Big Social Issue because Muslims students would complain and the screw ups would be assumed to be malicious and intentional.

The Sabbath issue was a bigger problem, though. Every freshman and sophomore lecture class had their tests on Saturday mornings. These could be handled since there was a largish Jewish population. But my junior EE fall final was on Saturday and the prof decided it was too much work to give me the final on Friday or Monday. He was told by the provost it wouldn't be a problem and to apologize--the professor was an ass because he assumed I was Jewish, and provost assumed I was Jewish--a lot of alumni were Jewish. Otherwise ... I was going to take the F because my personal decisions are not binding on other people. I'm not their overlord. However, in this case I'd have had the chance to do a make-up final for all sorts of other reasons--if I'd been sick, had to be out of town, etc. The system and structure was in place for make-up tests.

It would have been unreasonable to expect the colleges to keep strict kashrut, the whole meat-and-daily thing (not what I observed, but others would have). It would have been too expensive and inconvenient, and other students would have had to pay for my religious quirk. Had the accommodation been too difficult, they'd have waived the meal plan requirement. Or I wouldn't have stayed in the dorm.

It would have been unreasonable for the colleges to have accommodated every absence from class because of sabbaths. I choose to not be there, I'm stuck with the consequences of my decision. It's my faith, not theirs. Similarly, if I were out sick or out of town I'd have to make up the work as best I can on my own time.

Tolerance and accommodations go both ways. I have as many obligations to be tolerant and accommodating as I have rights to be tolerated and accommodated. Many Americans want to be overlords (all rights, no obligations), not equals.

[Yo_Mama]

14. Your last paragraph says it all. Everyone needs to try to reasonably

accommodate each other, and that makes life a lot better for all of us.

If each of our little groups tried to twist the whole of society to fit our own needs, in the long run we'd all suffer for it.

Just one example - when people of one faith want to attend prayers on their holy day, it's nice to have others in the business with a different holy day. It's wonderful to have doctors who aren't Jewish to be at the hospital on Yom Kippur.

I am always amazed that people don't see this, because it seems so obvious to me! But you are right:

Many Americans want to be overlords (all rights, no obligations), not equals.

That is coming to be the attitude, and it's seriously damaging.

[Ron Obvious]

12. Good

I'm glad common sense prevailed here.

Who would want to hire Somalis or Muslims if they had to be accommodated in this fashion at every workplace, causing great production difficulties and massive resentments among the other workers?

Frankly, a lot of this sort of behaviour seems merely provocative and aimed at big lawsuit payouts. They're causing their own alienation.

Go ahead, call me a fucking Islamophobe again. That word has long ceased to have any meaning to me.

[Yo_Mama]

13. It never had a chance of succeeding, because mfrg lines

are one of the specific examples of valid business needs.

"Reasonable accommodation" does not require a company to change its scheduling, etc. If a company can do something that doesn't substantially impede its business, the law requires it to do so.

So pictures on cubical walls, or a prayer area, or allowing some employees to take breaks on slightly different schedules/areas is pretty much required, as long as that doesn't shut down the business for a time.