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A large meat packing company in the United States has agreed to pay $ 1.5 million to settle charges of discrimination against Muslim workers who have left their jobs in conflict over prayer breaks.
The US Equal Employment Commission announced the settlement on Friday after several years of litigation between Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation and 138 Muslim workers, mostly Somali immigrants.
The dispute began in late 2016 after workers were fired following a three-day outing at a meat packing plant in Fort Morgan, Colorado.
The leadership has changed policies allowing Muslim workers to take short prayer breaks.
The EEOC said it had "a reasonable basis to believe that Somali, African and Muslim employees were harassed, denied their requests for prayer breaks and were fired."
Cargill disagreed but said he settled the case to avoid further lawsuits. The company is also committed to allowing "Muslim workers to take short breaks to perform their obligatory prayers".
A union section of the Teamsters representing the workers will pay them $ 153,000 to settle the discrimination complaints related to the conflict. The EEOC stated that Teamsters Local 455 had not defended workers – who were members of the union who were contributing dues – and harassed them because of their race, religion and national origin.
The union has denied wrongdoing, but has also agreed to provide grievance training to union leaders and to publicize the rights of employees to work in an environment free of discrimination.
The Council for American-Islamic Relations applauded the settlements, as did Denver's lawyer, Qusair Mohamedbhai, who represented the workers.
"We are pleased with the settlement reached for the 138 former Cargill employees we have represented in this proceeding and commend the company for its ongoing efforts to systematically grant prayer requests to people of all faiths based on its policy and its longstanding values ". I said.
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