Even legal news stories are sometimes amusing
This is one of the stories in today's issue of the Daily Labor newsletter put out by the company where I work. Another example of "well, duh".
Court Finds No Bias in Ham Plant's Firing Of Muslim Who Refused to Touch Pork
An Iraqi-born Muslim who lost his job at a Nebraska ham processing plant for refusing to touch pork failed to show that he was discriminated against because of his religion or national origin, a federal trial court ruled Oct. 24 (Al-Jabery v. ConAgra Foods Inc., D. Neb., No. 4:06cv3157, 10/24/07).
In dismissing the discrimination claims brought under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska found that accommodating the worker's desire to avoid contact with pork "would have caused a fundamental restructuring" in the ham plant's operations. "Plainly put, a ham plant cannot be efficiently run by catering to the idiosyncratic desires of a Muslim worker not to touch the plant's main product," Judge Richard G. Kopf wrote for the court.