Thursday January 28, 2016
By Ethan Safran
RILLION, Wis. — None of the Somali employees at Ariens Co. in Wisconsin have been terminated since the company began to enforce a break policy that they say infringes on their ability to pray.
But some have opted to resign, the company said.
In a meeting earlier this month, the snowblower and lawnmower manufacturing company announced it would begin enforcing a mid-1980s policy that limits breaks to 10 minutes twice a shift. Previously, Muslim employees were allowed to leave their work station to pray two of their five daily prayers. The enforcement of the policy began this week, the company said.The 53 Somali workers who practice the Muslim faith walked off the job earlier this month in protest of the break policy.
The company declined to say how many of the workers have left the company.
The Somali employees were hired last summer from a Green Bay job fair and employment agency. Many of them work assembly-line positions.
As of last Friday, Ariens. Co. said 44 of the 53 Somali workers had returned to work. In a statement released Monday night, the company said it would be "irresponsible" to provide numbers on the status of the Somali workers, as the number has been changing each day.
"Some employees have chosen to stay and work within the break policy, and some are choosing to resign," the Ariens statement said. "At this point it is an internal matter between Ariens Co. and employees. We will provide an update when it is clear but we are taking this time to work with employees on an individual basis for the best possible outcome."
Ann Stilp, an Ariens Co. spokeswoman, told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin Tuesday that the company is trying to be as flexible as possible with the employees at the company, which employs about 2,000 people, half of them in Brillion.
"There are language barriers," Stilp said. "We've brought in an interpreter. We're working with individual employees to determine what their intention is right now."
Prior to the company's decision earlier this month, Muslim employees had been allowed to take an additional prayer break during their shift, a break dependent on the time of the year and the time of the day the employee worked.
Last week, Ariens CEO Dan Ariens said allowing the unscheduled five-minute breaks would cost the company more than $1 million in lost production each year.
"They work as a team," Ariens said at a news conference on Jan. 18. "Our team leaders glow about how well they've performed as a group, with this one issue of the extra breaks being one of our challenges."
On Jan. 18, seven of the Somali employees met with the Council of American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, in Minneapolis.
Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the council's Minnesota branch, said the organization spoke with Ariens officials on Friday. Stilp said the telephone call was a "good conversation" but said the company is not changing its position.
"We've been trying to negotiate with the company," Hussein said. "We want to see if they would push back the policy and see if they would pursue options that would work for the employees and the employer."
Hussein told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin on Tuesday that Ariens is violating federal law.
According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an employer does not have to accommodate an employee's religious beliefs or practice if doing so would cause "undue hardship to the employer." Undue hardship includes cost measures, workplace safety, workplace efficiency, infringement on the rights of other employees or requiring other employees to do excess hazardous or burdensome work.
"If an employee requests religious accommodations, the employer has to accommodate," Hussein said. Pursuing legal options against Ariens Co. is being "internally debated," he said.
Hussein also said several Somali employees have reported bullying, harassment and intimidation "on and off" since they began working for Ariens Co.
"Sometimes management would interfere and make good decisions on behalf of the employees being bullied, and sometimes they would be completely dismissed," he said.
Ariens Co. officials said the company would investigate and address any such allegations.
Ariens Co. reiterated Tuesday that the Somali workers are "good employees."
"We've invested training time in them," Stilp said. "Our goal is to make sure that we can manage the best possible outcome for the company and our employees."