A federal jury trial began Monday in which JetStream Ground Services was accused of not allowing female Muslim employees to wear clothing required of them by their faith, including head scarves.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued in 2013, seeking back pay and compensatory damages for plaintiffs Safia Abdulle Ali, Sahra Bashi Abdirahman, Hana Bokku, Sadiyo Hassan Jama and Amino Warsame. The case is being heard in U.S. District Court in Denver.
The EEOC claims that JetStream violated the civil rights of Muslim women by refusing to hire them or firing them or reducing their hours if they were religiously observant.
JetStream attorney Raymond Deeny said the company does not discriminate against women but had to lay off numerous employees when the company lost a contract with Denver International Airport.
“We are not motivated to drive these people away,” Deeny said during opening statements. “The highest percentage of people we hire are of Ethiopian heritage. … It has nothing to do with head scarves.”
JetStream twice offered to rehire the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, but only one accepted the offer, Deeny said. “We asked them to come back to work — nope.”
JetStream offers ground services for airlines including cargo, freight, mail handling, aircraft maintenance and cabin cleaning.
The company began working at DIA in 2008, taking over the ground-services contract from Air Serv Corp, which allowed the workers to wear head scarves and long skirts.
But when Air Serv workers applied to JetStream, the lawsuit said, they were told they could wear only the company’s uniform of tan pants, a green shirt, a vest and a cap with a company logo on it.
Diana Martinez, a former manager for JetStream at DIA, was the first person to testify for the plaintiffs.
Martinez said she received 60 to 100 complaints from women about the prohibition of wearing head scarves while cleaning plane cabins.
“They said it was their religion,” Martinez said.
Eventually, the company bought blue or black scarves for employees to wear, said Martinez, who was fired by JetStream.