Sheikh Ahmed, a former New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) worker, filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that the NYCTA violated his rights by subjecting him to persistent harassment due to his Muslim beliefs and denied him reasonable workplace accommodation of his religious observances.
According to his supporters, Mr. Ahmed had a track record of over ten years of excellent service as a Car Cleaner with the NYCTA. When he was transferred to the Department of Buses’ East New York Depot in 2009, he faced a campaign of hostility and obstruction as a result of his religious observances. When Mr. Ahmed tried to raise complaints of discrimination, he faced escalating retaliatory harassment.
Mr. Ahmed is a member of the South Asian Workers Center at DRUM – Desis Rising Up & Moving, an organization of low-income South Asians fighting for workers rights, immigrant rights, educational justice, and against all forms of profiling and discrimination. With legal assistance in partnership with the law firm of Bantle and Levy LLP, and the Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center, Mr. Ahmed filed the lawsuit against the MTA in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Monami Maulik, the Executive Director of DRUM said that “all forms of the discrimination and abuse of workers are disturbing, but it is particularly alarming when public benefit agencies engage in such discriminatory conduct, as it lends a stamp of social legitimacy.”
“Mr. Ahmed’s case draws attention to the continuing problem of Muslim employees being prevented from observing their religion because they are unlawfully denied reasonable workplace accommodations,” said Lee Bantle, partner at Bantle & Levy LLP.
David Colodny, Supervising Attorney in the Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center, said that “when a worker asks his employer for an adjusted work schedule so that he can exercise his religious beliefs, Federal, State and City law each require the employer to accommodate the request whenever reasonable. Hopefully this case will spur the Transit Authority to review its policies and ensure that it complies with this important legal obligation moving forward.”
DRUM’s South Asian Workers Center organizes hundreds of low-wage immigrant workers demanding justice, fighting abuse, and winning back stolen wages for workers across service industries.