
Muslim prayer time new legal issue at Swift plant
Lubbock online
AMARILLO
The dispute over prayer breaks for Muslim employees at the Swift & Co. plant in Cactus is a two-sided legal issue, an Amarillo attorney said this week.
At least 54 plant employees, all Muslims of African descent, walked off the job last week, citing the company’s refusal to allow them two prayer breaks and female employees adequate time to wash after using the restroom, a strict requirement of the religion.
Vicki Wilmarth, an attorney specializing in employment law, said, “The basic rule is, an employer has to reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs and practices, but only if the employee can do so without undo hardship to the employer’s business.
“So it’s a balancing act. It requires the employer and employees to determine what a reasonable accommodation would be.”
Wilmarth said the federal statute governing religious discrimination in the workplace is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the state statute is Texas Labor Code section 21.051.
“Although neither statute says that employers have to reasonably accommodate religion, the courts have implied that and the regulations enforce that.”
Muslim workers pray five times a day and are asking Swift to grant two breaks a day: one at 4 p.m. and one at sunset.
“Breaks have to be paid if they are less than 30 minutes, but the law doesn’t say how many there have to be,” Wilmarth said.
Wild Thing’s comment……..
The poor things are being Swift-planted! heh heh The answer is simple, the moral of this story is don’t hire muslims!
This is weird too, I mean the Swift Plant producse and packages meat products there, many of them PORK. And the reason why muzzies want to work around pork is what, exactly?
Remember when Bill Clinton brought 95,000 Somalis into the U.S. and gave them legal status. He also signed an executive order directing taxpayer monies for interpreters, job-training services and family/healthcare services for them.
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