BRILLION, WI (WTAQ) – A federal complaint has been filed against Ariens Company, four months after the Brillion-based manufacturer started heavily enforcing its break policy.
“Pray is an obligatory and central aspect of these workers core religious beliefs,” said Maha Sayed, a spokesperson for the Council on American Islamic Relations.
CAIR filed the complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission at their regional office in Milwaukee, and the National Labor Relations Board.
“Ariens Unilateral and arbitrary decision to revoke the company’s break policy solely with respect to religiously motivated requests and it’s complete and unwilling to engage in an interactive process with the aggrieved Muslim workers about its accommodation policies violates Tile VII and EEOC guidelines,” Sayed goes on to say during a video statement posted to their Facebook page.
Ariens break policy allows for two scheduled breaks each lasting 10 minutes.
“Muslims pray at 5 prescribed times each day which generally occur at dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset, and nighttime,” Sayed said.
Ariens said since the company started enforcing its pray policy, 11 Muslim employees were fired, 15 resigned and 27 still work at Ariens.
In a statement, Ariens said “It’s disappointing that a group based in Washington D.C. is filing an EEOC complaint.” It goes on to say “Wet respects the workers’ faith and we respects the work they do at Ariens Company,”
The EEOC and the NLRB will conduct an investigation into the complaint which could take months.
