Posted on Thursday, 24 of January , 2008 at 6:48 pm
NEW
YORK—The federal government has settled a civil rights lawsuit against
the New York State Department of Correctional Services (DOCS), the
agency responsible for operating the state's prisons.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan federal
court in March 2007, alleged that DOCS unlawfully discriminated on the
basis of religion by refusing to accommodate its employees' religious
practices and observances, in particular by refusing to permit
correction officers to wear religiously required head coverings. Under
the settlement to which DOCS has agreed, the agency will provide
case-by-case consideration of requests for religious exemptions from
DOCS's uniform and grooming requirements, and specifically will permit
its employees to wear conservative kufis or yarmulkes as long as an
undue hardship to DOCS would not result.
The settlement agreement was signed today by United States District Judge Denny Chin.
According to the complaint filed in Manhattan federal
court, DOCS employs more than 31,000 persons, approximately21,000 of
whom are uniformed security personnel, including correction officers.
At the time the complaint was filed, DOCS's uniform and personal
grooming standards did not recognize any exceptions based on religious
practice, and DOCS enforced a policy of refusing to grant any religious
accommodation to uniformed security personnel that would depart from
those standards, even when the requested accommodation would not pose
an undue hardship for DOCS.
As an example, Abdus Samad Haqq, a correction officer
at a work-release prison in Manhattan, wore a kufi (a Muslim skull cap)
for years while performing his job duties, without incident, and has
said that wearing a kufi is, for him, a requirement of his religious
devotion and his practice of Islam.
In 2005, Haqq was ordered to stop wearing the kufi,
on the ground that it was prohibited by DOCS's policy regarding
uniforms. Haqq settled a separate lawsuit against DOCS in May 2007, and
now may wear his kufi while in uniform.
The government filed its lawsuit under Title VII of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination
on the basis of religion and requires employers to reasonably
accommodate the religious practices and observances of their employees.
Under the terms of the settlement, DOCS agreed to adhere to a policy it
adopted shortly after the Government's lawsuit was filed. That policy
requires DOCS to follow a procedure by which uniformed employees may
request accommodations from the uniform and grooming requirements
because of their religious practices and beliefs, and DOCS must provide
an individualized assessment of each such request.
Moreover, unless an undue hardship would result, DOCS
may not deny an employee's request for accommodation solely because the
accommodation would allow the employee's religion to be identified, and
must also permit an employee to wear a solid-colored, dark blue or
black, close-fitting kufi or yarmulke. 1-24-08
_________________
