Thread: Muslims claim discrimination in company dress code

May 28, 2008, 12:45AM
Muslims claim discrimination in company dress code


© 2008 The Associated Press

TOOLS
Email Get section feed
Print Recommend
Comments (2) Yahoo! Buzz
MINNEAPOLIS — A group of Muslim workers claim they were fired by a New Brighton tortilla factory for refusing to wear uniforms rather than their traditional loose-fitting skirts and scarves, according to a civil liberties group.

Six Somali women claim they were ordered by a manager to wear pants and shirts they considered immodest by Islamic standards, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Tuesday. The women have filed a religious discrimination complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

"For these women, wearing tight-fitting pants is like being naked," said Valerie Shirley, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota chapter of CAIR. "It's simply not an option."

Gruma Corporation, the Irving, Texas-based parent company of Mission Foods, released a written statement Tuesday denying that any employees were terminated or disciplined at the New Brighton plant. However, the company made clear the six women have been relieved of their responsibilities for the time being, and may ultimately lose their jobs if they don't wear uniforms.

"Should these employees choose to adhere to the current Mission Foods uniform policy, they may return to their positions with the company," the company statement said. "However, these positions will need to be filled as soon as possible and cannot be held indefinitely."

CAIR called on Mission Foods to reinstate the women, though the group declined to disclose the names of the women or make them available for interviews Tuesday.

Last year, some Muslim cashiers at Target Corp. stores in Minnesota were shifted to other positions after refusing to scan pork products because doing so would violate their religious beliefs. And in 2005, a group of 26 workers were either fired or suspended by an Arden Hills electronics manufacturer for violating the company's prayer rules, which set limits on the times they could break for prayers.

The federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 says employers must accommodate workers' religious beliefs, so long as the requests are "reasonable" and do not create "undue hardship" for the company.

At the Mission Foods plant, the Muslim workers had already made some accommodations, Shirley said. They had agreed to wear coats that were more loose-fitting than their scarves, but the company took them away before imposing a new dress code that involved trousers and shirts, she said.







http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5804990.html

It's time for these people to go home... they are wearing out they're welcome quick...

by the way... they can take the entire Bush upper and mid-tier leadership with them and 80% of the Democrats in the House and Senate; 60% of the Republicans in the House or Senate

We have in our country a host of immigration laws that seriously need to be re-written. religious laws don't work well for a white person at all . Only if your from out of country do these screwed up laws help you to dominate someone else's business . We where setup decades ago and it's getting worst .

They have no place in food processing anyway.

They wash their feet with their hands times 5 a day .

Michelle Malkan wrote a good article on them.

The uniforms are for hygene purposes, and if they want to dress like nuns they need to work elsewhere . Let a nun try this crap and see how far they get .

From 1990-2000 mosque have grown in America by 42% . Christian places of worship only 12% .

Social and politicle mobilization are taught in most of these places.