A federal panel said Monday that it believed Greeley meatpacker JBS Swift violated the civil rights of more than 100 Somali Muslims it fired last year after a walkout over religious differences at the height of Ramadan, Islam’s holiest time.
The determination by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission comes exactly a year after hundreds of Somali workers left the slaughterhouse because the company wouldn’t accommodate requests for prayer time.
A Swift spokesman said Monday that the EEOC determination was not unexpected but that the timing of the decision was “disappointing” as the meatpacker has worked to make “this year’s Ramadan work out smoothly.”
“We don’t think it’s coincidental,” Chandler Keys said of the EEOC decision arriving during the holy month, which began Aug. 24. “We’re focused on this year’s Ramadan.”
The Muslim workers had demanded time to pray at sundown, the end of a dawn-to-dusk fast, a requirement of Islam during Ramadan. More than 300 workers walked out when told they could not break for the day’s final prayer. About 103 workers were fired days later, not for walking off the job but for not returning to work, Keys said.
The walkout touched off a storm of protests, mostly among workers of different religious faiths who railed at the request for religious accommodation. Federal law requires employers to accommodate the religious requests of its workers.
The EEOC determined Swift had violated a portion of the civil-rights act that forbids certain forms of discrimination in employment. Specifically, it said Swift engaged in a “pattern and practice of discrimination” that included harassment, a hostile work environment, discriminatory job assignments and discipline. It also said Swift denied religious accommodation and retaliated against workers who complained about it.
The determination means Swift and the fired Muslim workers can sit with a mediator to negotiate terms of a settlement. If unable to reach an accord, which could include reinstatement of the fired workers or remuneration, the EEOC or the workers can sue the company.
The process could take months, workers lawyer Diane King said.
Swift has since set up special prayer rooms at its plants and allows Muslim workers to take time to meet their religious obligations.
The EEOC made a similar finding against Swift last week for actions it took last year against workers at its plant in Grand Island, Neb., where about 500 Muslim workers walked off the job for the same reasons.