130 Muslim workers fired over unauthorized breaks during Ramadan

[Alan Leigh Armstrong]

Swift also has a federal law and perhaps a state law problem.

Federal law requires that employees who work a shift longer than 6  
hours must take a 30 minute lunch break. The lunch break cannot be  
more than 5 hours 30 minutes after they start. (I ran into this many  
years ago when i worked for the Navy. Some people would come in early  
saturday, work 8 hours then go home. They were told they had to take  
a 30 minute lunch break.
Under federal law, they can work a 6 hour shift without a lunch break.

Does Swift let the employees take 2 30 minute breaks? What does that  
do to production?
Can Swift put them all on swing or graveyard shift so they are at  
work during the night and avoid the problem of lunch between sunrise  
and sunset?

When reasonable accommodation hits federal law, which prevails?

Alan Armstrong
Huntington Beach California

On Sep 11, 2008, at 12:03 PM, Douglas Laycock wrote:

> A typically garbled press account, with paragraphs that sound like  
> they're from two different disputes.  So it's hard to tell what's  
> really going on.
>
> But if the dispute is really just about a lunch break at sunset,  
> it's a pretty straightforward Title VII accommodation claim.  Hard  
> to imagine what Swift's undue hardship would be if that standard  
> were taken seriously.  Hard to imagine even what a de minimis  
> hardship would be if nearly the whole work force is Muslim.  If  
> there are also lots of non-Muslim workers, Swift might claim it has  
> scheduling problems.  It sounds like at this point they made no  
> effort to accommodate and don't give a damn, but of course they  
> don't have to explain their legal position to a reporter.
>
> Quoting "Volokh, Eugene" <VOLOKH at law.ucla.edu>:
>
> > From
> > http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/sep/10/swift-company- 
> fires-10
> > 0-workers/:
> >
> > At least 130 Muslim workers at the north Greeley JBS Swift & Co.  
> plant
> > were fired Wednesday afternoon, apparently over a dispute involving
> > breaks during Ramadan....
> >
> > At issue is a request by Muslim workers to be able to take their  
> lunch
> > breaks at sunset to end their fast during Ramadan.
> >
> > United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 spokesman Manny  
> Gonzales said
> > that between 130 to 150 workers from JBS Swift & Co. had been fired.
> >
> > The firings appear to be related to the walkout of as many as 300  
> Muslim
> > employees Friday. Many of the workers had been suspended after  
> walking
> > off the job before their shifts ended....
> >
> > But many of the workers who gathered at a Greeley park Tuesday  
> expressed
> > their dissatisfaction with negotiations by saying, "No prayer, no  
> work."
> >
> > Swift spokeswoman Tamara Smid said in a written statement that the
> > workers were told they would be fired if they didn't report to  
> work when
> > recalled. Smid didn't specify how many workers were fired. ...
> >
> > Any thoughts?
> >
> > Eugene
> >
> >
>
>
> Douglas Laycock
> Yale Kamisar Collegiate Professor of Law
> University of Michigan Law School
> 625 S. State St.
> Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1215
>   734-647-9713
>
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