30 Jan - USA:

A federal jury in Trenton ordered United Parcel Service to pay $10,000 to a Jersey City man who was denied a job because his Rastafarian religious beliefs forbid him from shaving his beard.

The suit, filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, charged that the Atlanta-based company discriminated against Roniss Mason, 31, by failing to make an exception to its "appearance guidelines" to accommodate his religious beliefs. He had applied in 2004 for a job as a driver's assistant.

Michael Ranis, a lawyer for the Employment Opportunity Commission, said Thursday's verdict could have broad impact for religious men, including Muslims, Sikhs and Orthadox (sic) Jews.

Link

27 Jan - Canada:

The Canadian Race Relations Foundation has lent its support to an ex-RCMP recruit who successfully argued before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal that discrimination prevented him from finishing his Mountie training.

Iranian-born Muslim Ali Tahmourpour, 36, appeared with several anti-racism leaders yesterday in a press conference at the CRRF's Yonge St. and Hwy. 401 offices.

After starting training with the Mounties in July 1999, he was dismissed in October of that year because he failed to meet training standards, according to the Mounties. But the rights tribunal felt otherwise, and ruled "the RCMP's discriminatory conduct caused Mr. Tahmourpour to lose the opportunity to develop and demonstrate, in his full potential, the necessary skills to become an RCMP officer."

[...]

Tahmourpour (who declined to comment yesterday) contended at the 2007 tribunal hearing that the RCMP of subjecting him to discrimination during training, including claims he was singled out for wearing a religious pendant and ridiculed for signing his name to documents in Persian.

Link

26 Jan - Toronto, Canada:

A Sikh security guard who was asked to trade in his turban for a hard hat at a Milton Home Depot will have his case heard before the Human Rights tribunal today.

Deepinder Loomba has been fighting the hardware franchise for almost four years after a supervisor at a Home Depot construction site asked Loomba to wear a hard hat.

Link

23 Jan - Texas, USA:

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), assisted by UNITED SIKHS, settled an employment discrimination case earlier this week against Champion National Security, a security firm that discriminated against Sukhdev Singh Brar.

The EEOC sought compensatory and punitive damages when filing the employment discrimination action against the security company, after numerous consultations with UNITED SIKHS to understand the importance of kesh (unshorn hair) covered by a dastaar (Sikh turban) as one of the five articles of faith Sikhs are required to wear as an inherent practice of the Sikh faith. Champion National Security settled the case, acknowledging the discriminatory policy and agreeing to a written change in company policy with continued Sikh awareness training, to be provided by UNITED SIKHS. Champion National Security will also post anti-discrimination notices on all employee bulletin boards and compensate Sukhdev Singh $24,000.

Link

8 Jan - USA:

The Sikh Coalition filed suit against the federal government this week to protect a Sikh employee's right to wear her kirpan to work. The lawsuit alleges that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Federal Protective Service (FPS) discriminated against Kawaljeet Kaur Tagore by prohibiting her from carrying a kirpan, a mandatory article of faith, on her job as a revenue agent at the Mickey Leland Federal Building in downtown Houston. Ms. Tagore was fired from her job in July 2006 because she refused to remove her kirpan.

"Sikhs should be entitled to work for their government, just like other Americans. In this case, the government put Ms. Tagore in the unacceptable position of choosing between her religion and her job." said Harsimran Kaur, the Sikh Coalition's Legal Director.

The lawsuit claims that the government's conduct violated both the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) and Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964. It alleges that the FPS and IRS banned the
kirpan as a so-called "dangerous weapon," even though the government
allows hundreds of sharp knives and box cutters in the Leland
Building. Government officials banned Tagore's kirpan sight unseen,
failing to conduct any examination whatsoever of the kirpan before
banning it outright.

Link

31 Dec - USA:

Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER) has agreed to pay $1.6 million to settle a discrimination lawsuit that alleged an employee was let go from the company because he is Muslim and Iranian, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Wednesday.

The lawsuit filed by the EEOC alleged that the investment bank failed to promote Majid Borumand, a quantitative analyst in its Model Development Group, in August 2005 and ultimately terminated him because of his national origin and religion.

[...]

The lawsuit alleged that while working at Merrill, Borumand was subjected to a number of hostile remarks, including being told that "the reason that you are not allowed on the trading floor is because you are from a country which has a high risk factor and (is) a threat."

Link

19 Dec - Romania:

The Turkish physical trainer of Steaua Bucharest has protested to FIFA after he was fired because he's a Muslim.

Steaua owner Gigi Becali fired Yuksel Yesilova on Saturday saying he brought back luck to Steaua because of his religion.

Becali said: "Steaua is a Christian team and we had bad luck because of him. I don't want to see him here. We can't keep a Muslim in a team that has a cross on its team bus and shirts."

Yesilova said Friday he had been called by FIFA officials about his firing. His contract expired in 2010.

Link

02 Dec - Boston:

The right of a business to control its public image doesn’t trump workers’
right to dress or groom themselves differently if they are required to do so by
their religious beliefs, the state’s highest court ruled today.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in the case of Bobby T. Brown, a
Rastafarian who worked as technician at a Hadley Jiffy Lube owned by F.L.
Roberts & Co. Inc.

Brown’s religion doesn’t permit him to shave or cut his hair. When the
company instituted a new policy that required employees who worked with
customers to be clean-shaven, Brown was only allowed to work out of sight from
customers in the lower bay of the oil change shop, the court said in an opinion
written by Justice Roderick Ireland.

[...]

The court warned that if employers are allowed to cite their “public image”
in determining who deals with customers, they might lean toward tolerating the
religious practices of majority groups, while forbidding practices that are less
widespread.

Link

03 Dec - UK:

Saleca Faisal-Parkar, 31, was harassed, overlooked for jobs and training and was even branded "lazy" after she became seriously ill while pregnant.

The abuse was led by Stephen Jones, then head of litigation at the leading law firm Shakespeares, who also referred to her as a "flipping nun".

He was also a deputy district judge and a member of the Solicitors Disciplinary Panel, but has resigned both positions in the light of the scandal.

Mrs Faisal-Parkar, who has a young daughter, joined Shakespeares in 2002 as a legal assistant.
Not long after she started, she found out from a fellow worker that she had been nicknamed "Mother Teresa" because she wore a hijab, which covers her head.

Over the course of the following months, she said Mr Jones - who made the derogatory comments in emails - harassed her, refused her training requests and potentially reduced her annual salary increase by the type of work he gave her.

Link