EEOC Sues Nebraska Meat Packing Plant Over Religious Accommodation of Muslim Employees

According to an AP report, the EEOC yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against JBS Swift & Co. charging that the company failed to make reasonable accommodation for religious observance by some 80 Somali Muslims who were fired from company's Grand Island, Nebraska meat packing plant. The long-running problems at the plant began in 2007 when a number of East Africans were hired to fill spots that became vacant after an immigration raid found a number of illegal Hispanic immigrants working there. During Ramadan in 2008, hundreds of Muslim workers protested that they wanted time to pray and break their fast at sunset. When management tried to accommodate them, the company faced counter protests by non-Muslim workers who said the accommodation would burden them. Eventually the company fired 86 Muslims for walking off the job, and later hired back around a dozen of them. (See prior related posting.)