Ariens CEO clarifies company’s prayer policy

Dan Ariens Chairman/CEO of Brillion based Ariens called a press conference to clarify the company’s prayer-on-the-job policy following Action 2 News coverage of the issue last week.

Ariens pointed out that the company’s policy is nothing new, but merely was not being enforced until now. He also added that no one is unemployed.

“The best solution is to stay with the policy we’ve had for many years with two scheduled breaks which are 10 minutes long,” Ariens said. “And in those ten minute breaks, it should allow time for prayer. For those who want to pray.”

Ariens said while some employees were handed unemployment information at a recent meeting, a language barrier likely prevented everyone from understanding the policy’s enforcement.

He said that this past summer the company’s Muslim workforce grew, and therefore the company’s prayer policy during unscheduled breaks had to be addressed in order to minimize the impact on assembly lines. Because Muslim prayer times did not coincide with scheduled breaks, the Muslim workers were able to leave the line and designate duties to other workers.

The company recently issued a statement asking employees to pray during scheduled breaks in designated prayer rooms.

During Monday’s news conference, Ariens noted that several non-Muslim employees raised concerns dating back to October about the fairness of not enforcing company policy.

“We were trying to be fair. We didn’t sort of come down with an iron fist and say, ‘You will now stop taking these extra breaks,’” Ariens said. “We allow them to work that in if there’s a prayer routine, you can adjust your prayer routine given some time.”

Eight employees said they will return to work and two will work for Ariens on a new shift.

Ariens says he wants to keep every Muslim employee at the plant because the company invested time and energy in training them to be good manufacturing workers.

“From my vantage point, they come to work every day, when they’re here and they’re at their tasks they are good workers. They work as a team,” said Ariens. “Our team leaders glow about how well that they’ve performed as a group with this one issue of the extra breaks being one of our challenges.”

The total number of Muslim employees impacted by the policy is 53, Ariens said.

The policy will be enforced starting Mon. Jan 25, allowing two ten minute breaks that are scheduled by the company.

As we first reported Friday, federal law does not require an employer to accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs if doing so would cause undue hardship to the employer, such as decreased efficiency.

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