Heinz, Islamic workers headed to mediation

They’re disputing how the company handled religious expression.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will mediate a labor dispute between 22 Islamic workers and Dianne’s Gourmet Desserts, a Le Center, Minn., subsidiary of H.J. Heinz Co.'s foodservice operations.

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Minneapolis, maintains that the Islamic workers were fired by the Le Center firm in December in a dispute over freedom to practice their religious beliefs, and were forcibly removed from the premises.

In a statement, Heinz called the council’s statement “misleading.” It said that allowances were made for Islamic workers to practice their faith and that “no Islamic employees were terminated from their jobs for requesting prayer accommodation and none were removed forcibly.”

Dianne’s Gourmet Desserts manufactures frozen cheesecakes, pies and bars for foodservice businesses, restaurants and other food outlets.

The dispute allegedly revolves around whether Islamic employees were allowed to say prayers in the workplace at the time of day specified by their religion.

The council says that the Heinz subsidiary “created a new policy that abolished a break time used by Muslim employees to pray their evening prayer. The employees were prohibited from praying outside of the newly implemented work breaks, which did not coincide with prayer times.”

Heinz said it is “strongly committed to recognizing and protecting religious diversity in the workplace,” and that in Le Center it provided two prayer rooms for employees where the workers were “to take prayer breaks as a special accommodation to the requirements of their faith.”

Taneeza Islam, the council’s civil rights director, said that 18 of the Islamic workers that were full-time employees were rehired by Dianne’s Gourmet Desserts in January after the council interceded on their behalf, but said four part-time employees have not returned to work. She declined to say what settlement terms the workers were seeking.

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