I'm generally supportive of employers accommodating religious workers. And indeed, federal law requires it, provided that there is no undue burden placed upon the employer. An interesting test case on this issue vis-a-vis Islam may be coming out of Nebraska.

Supervisors at a meatpacking plant have fired or harassed dozens of Somali Muslim employees for trying to pray at sunset, violating civil rights laws, the workers and their advocates say.

The five- to 10-minute prayer, known as the maghrib, must be done within a 45-minute window around sunset, according to Muslim rules. The workers at the Swift & Co. plant in Grand Island say they quit, were fired or were verbally and physically harassed over the issue.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has drafted a complaint to be filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The petition compiles testimony from at least 44 workers who had planned to sign the complaint during a meeting Sunday. The signing was changed to a later date because of a logistical problem.

Jama Mohamed, 28, said he was fired in June for leaving a production line to pray. Supervisors would not allow him a break, he said.

However, the problem seems to be that there are over 100 Muslim workers at the plant -- and accommodating them could present a significant burden for the employer.

Donald Selzer, an attorney for Greeley, Colo.-based Swift, said only three Somali workers were fired for reasons relating to the issue, and that it was for walking off the line without permission, not for praying.

Unscheduled breaks can force unplanned shutdowns of lines, Selzer said.

"That is a significant number of employees, and there is not much of a way to accommodate that consistent with keeping the production online," he said.

Which raises the obvious question -- is shutting down production an unreasonable burden for the employer? I think the answer is obvious.

Posted by: Greg at 11:43 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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