Alwaght- A US airline has suspended a Muslim flight attendant who declined to serve alcohol, which is against her religious beliefs.
Charee Stanley, 40, was placed on administrative leave for 12 months in late August after Express Jet Airline said it was revoking its religious accommodation for the employee. That accommodation had previously allowed the flight attendant to decline serving alcohol.
She has filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. When she converted to Islam about two years ago, Stanley says she arranged for fellow flight attendants to serve alcohol on her behalf.
Stanley, a flight attendant with Express Jet Airline based at the US city of Detroit, says that arrangement worked out fine until one employee filed a complaint about having to do extra work last month. She added that the employee also made comments about her Islamic headdress and expressed other anti-Muslim sentiments.
Stanley,said Express Jet should accommodate her religious beliefs.
“I don’t feel like I should have to choose between practicing my religion properly and earning a living,” Stanley said.
Lena Masri, staff attorney with the Council on American Islamic Relations-Michigan, says that by law, employers must provide “reasonable accommodations” for an employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs –provided that accommodation doesn’t cause an “undue burden” for the employer.
“In this situation, there has clearly been no undue burden on the employer, as this request [was] accommodated for some time and there has never been any issue,” Masri said.
CAIR-Michigan director Dawud Walid added the organization is seeing more workplace discrimination cases.
“Her case is symptomatic of broader problem of Islamophobia that seems to be growing,” Walid said.
Stanley’s attorneys say that if the EEOC complaint doesn’t resolve the issue, a federal lawsuit could be filed.