Muslim Employees File Religious Discrimination Complaint Against Wisconsin Firm Over Prayer Dispute

By MORGAN WINSOR
May 25, 2016, 5:27 PM ET

An Islamic advocacy group representing former Muslim employees at a Wisconsin equipment company filed a discrimination complaint against the firm Tuesday because employees can no longer take prayer breaks at times that are in accordance with their religion. A letter accompanying the complaint claims employees were discriminated and retaliated against on the basis of their religion, national origin and race.

According to the letter, Ariens Co., which manufactures snowblowers and lawn tractors in Brillion, Wisconsin, used to allow Muslim employees to take prayer breaks one at a time after notifying and receiving permission from a supervisor. Employees say they had been able to take those breaks at the traditional times for Muslims. However, the employees claim the company began enforcing a new policy beginning on Jan. 25 that permitted only two pre-determined 10-minute breaks per work shift with no additional accommodations for prayer outside of those break times. Dozens of Somali Muslim employees at the company have protested the new break policy, and 15 of them are now represented by attorneys at the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, which submitted the charges of discrimination with the Milwaukee office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Dozens of Somali Muslim employees at the company have protested the new break policy, and 15 of them are now represented by attorneys at the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, which submitted the charges of discrimination with the Milwaukee office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“These individuals had direct and personal conversations with management in which they stated that they wanted to continue their employment with Ariens, but felt that they were no longer welcome and being forced out because of the company’s new policy,” CAIR wrote in a letter that accompanied its religious discrimination complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/muslim-employees-file-religious-discrimination-complaint-wisconsin-firm/story?id=39365677