Muslim airport worker, laid off after altering uniform, takes case to rights commission
John Goddard Staff Reporter
Nov 17, 2007 The skirt is too long – not too short – to please the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority.
Halima Muse, a practising Muslim, has been laid off without pay until she agrees to wear a standard uniform that includes either slacks or a skirt falling at the knee.
Instead, she has filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission saying she is the target of religious discrimination, as Islam instructs that she dress modestly in a way that covers the body and conceals its curves.
"My skirt is not that much different – it's a bit longer," she said yesterday from her home not far from Pearson airport, where she has worked for more than five years. "It's not about style, it's about my dignity."
| Voices: Guard's skirt too long |
| Airport security guard Halima Muse, a devout Muslim, has been sent home without pay until she agrees to wear pants or a shorter skirt. We asked you whether you think her employer is justified. Here's what you had to say. Read Full Story |
Muse, 33, is the single mother of one teenage son. She came to Canada from Somalia in 1989 and says she enjoyed working at the airport and never had problems with her immediate employer, Garda of Canada.
"I love my job," said Muse, who scanned passengers and luggage in the security area. "I like the people working with me. All the managers are nice to me. Most of the travellers are nice. We meet lots of different kinds of people ...
"It's flexible," she also said. "I pray five times a day for five minutes."
Until February of this year, Muse wore slacks with her uniform but never liked them, her brief to the commission says. They showed the shape of her body.
She asked the Garda employee in charge of uniforms for a skirt longer than the standard one. No such skirt existed, she was told, but she negotiated a solution. Matching colour and material, she made her own skirt that reached the ankle.
For six months all went well, Muse said in the interview. Then a Garda manager said she must conform to regulations.
"The regulations are established by (the air transport security authority)," said Garda communications director Joe Gavaghan.
"We neither set those requirements nor can we interpret them ...
"We immediately went to (the federal authority) indicating what the situation was and asking them to please direct us as to what we could do. They came back and had made the decision that there are two alternatives: Women can wear a skirt that is knee length or they can wear pants."
No issues of safety or security have arisen, said Mihad Fahmy on behalf of the Ottawa-based Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, which co-represents Muse in the human rights case along with her union, Teamsters Local 847.
"This is the standard: `This is the uniform, end of story,' " Fahmy said, summing up the federal position as she understands it.
"This isn't even a case of hijab, of a headscarf not being allowed in the workplace, which is often what we come across," she said. "This is just the length of a skirt."
By law, an employer must show nothing can be reasonably done to accommodate religious belief, said Jo-anne Pickel, a Toronto lawyer acting for the union.
"We say that in this case it's very easy to accommodate her religious belief," Pickel said. "All she needs is a skirt that is slightly longer."
The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority will take questions next week, a spokesperson said.
Muse's suspension from work happened in stages. On Aug. 11, Garda suspended her one day for wearing the ankle-length skirt.
On Aug. 15, she was suspended for three days. On Aug. 22, the penalty became five days. On Aug. 29, she was sent home indefinitely.
"I am talking for all women who would like to wear a long skirt – practising Christians, Jewish, Muslim, all of them," Muse said.
Taking a stand has already cost her, she said. Out of work nearly three months, she is running up debt on a credit card and borrowing money from her brother.
The federal employment insurance agency has refused to qualify her, she said, because she is not officially unemployed – she can go back to her job if she conforms to regulations she considers to violate her religious rights. The welfare department has similarly denied her application, she said.
Source: Toronto Star, Nov 17, 2007