Muslim farmhands will not be forced to break their Ramadan fast by drinking water in the fields during the day nor will they be fired for refusing to do so, the Coldiretti farmers’ union said on Friday.
The union explained that a local farming safety committee in Mantua on Thursday did not issue an ‘order’ telling Muslim farmworkers they had to drink water, but had only released a series of ‘recommendations’ regarding health and safety.
Coldiretti issued its clarification after the president of its chapter in Mantua, Roberto Cagliari, who is also the local farmers safety committee chairman, said that Muslim farmhands who refused to drink water during the day ‘will be temporarily suspended from work and if they repeat the infraction, they will be fired”.
“No obligation was imposed nor threat of dismissal made. These were only recommendations drawn up by national health
authorities and worker representatives in the interest of guaranteeing the health of farmhands, which is the duty and responsibility of all,” Coldiretti said.
A ‘suggestion’ to drink water, the union recalled, “was also expressed by a representative from the local Islamic community in Mantua”.
The recommendations were made by the safety committee - made up of farm owners, unions and health officials - “because we all feel that it is our ethical and moral duty and responsibility to inform workers of the danger to their health when working out in the sun in 30-degree temperatures without sufficient nutrition,” Coldiretti explained.
During the month of Ramadan, which this year runs from August 22 to September 19, Muslims seek to purify themselves through fasting, self-restraint and good deeds. It it strictly prohibited to eat, drink, smoke, have sex or do anything in excess from dawn and dusk.
Cagliari had also said that ‘we issued our order because we want to safeguard the health of our workers as much as possible. Last year the refusal to drink water during Ramadan on the part of various farmhands created considerable problems in melon fields”.
But a representative of the Mantuan Islamic community, Ben Mansour, said the order was illegal and unnecessary.
“There is no work contract and no legal provision requiring us to drink during Ramadan and if any Muslim worker is fired for this, then we will contest it,” he said.
“If a Muslim farmhand feels unwell, he can take a break and if he then realises that the feeling is not a passing one, he may take a drink. But that is his own decision and no one else should be able to force that on him,” Mansour added.