TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - As many as 24 Muslim employees of the global package service DHL have filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing the company of firing them for praying.
Mohamed Maow, 27, a refugee from Somalia who worked at DHL in Hebron, Kentucky, says the company previously offered flexibility on break times that allowed him and other Muslims to stop and pray five times a day, as Islamic tradition dictates. They were fired en masse, Maow alleges, after DHL changed the policy.
The Cincinnati chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations says it has complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that the workers were exercising legally protected religious rights. It said civil rights law requires employers to reasonably accommodate employee religious practices.
DHL has yet to respond to this issue.
ANINGTIAS JATMIKA | TIME