A former Whole Foods employee is claiming he had to choose between his faith and his employment. A complaint on his behalf was filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by the Philadelphia chapter of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Glenn Mack started working for Whole Foods in Fairmount between October 2008 and February 2011.
“When I first arrived at the store, I was warmly told I had a great smile, but I knew I would have to keep my Islamic identity a secret after overhearing some comments,” Mack says. “The secret came to end when I was forced to reveal my intentions of making my once in a lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca. The response was: you either choose your job or you choose to go and practice your religion.”
Mack felt compelled to pray outside by the dumpsters instead of in a private store room.
“Whole Foods Market has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to discrimination,” says Whole Foods spokesperson Kate Lowery. “While I really can’t give out specific employee details for privacy reasons, I can tell you that we absolutely deny this allegation, but we continue to look at it from every angle to make sure there is consistency on our end.”