Posted on 03/04/2016 2:18:57 PM PST by Swordmaker
A former attorney for Apple filed a lawsuit this week alleging that the company violated anti-discrimination laws by failing to accommodate his religious beliefs.
In a complaint filed in state court in San Jose, Feras Mousilli claims the company refused to print Arabic on his business cards, and repeatedly told him he was not a “cultural fit.” Mousilli, who lives in San Francisco, also states that Apple AAPL refused to re-schedule weekly meetings with his supervisor so that he could attend Friday prayers.
Mousilli, who is of Syrian origin, also claims Apple was a hostile environment in which other employees, named only as “John Doe,” repeatedly told “inappropriate jokes about the war in the Middle East, ISIS terrorists, and the war taking place in Syria.”
An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Mousilli says he was fired by Apple in January 2015 on the grounds that he breached confidentiality rules by showing a prototype of iWatch to family and friends. He claimed this was a pretext to fire him.
“I didn’t display anything that wasn’t public already,” said Mousilli by phone. “I showed a Mickey Mouse display of the watch that had already been paraded on stage by no less than Tim Cook.”
He said he the real reason that Apple fired him was because it did not wish to abide by a legal duty to accommodate his religious rights.
The lawsuit seeks at least $25,000, including for back wages and for other monetary and punitive damages along with compensation for emotional pain and suffering. The complaint, spotted by Courthouse News, also claims that Apple failed to accommodate physical disabilities relating to his blindness in one eye and color-blindness.
The new discrimination suit comes during a sensitive week for Apple. The company is currently locked in a bitter battle with the federal government, which is seeking a court order to force Apple to decrypt an iPhone used by Syed Farook, one of the dead terrorists in the San Bernardino shooting in December.
(Story was updated to add Apple declined comment)
Damn it all! I want a beer break 2-3 times a day and the company says no.
No employer should have to capitulate to the whims of every employee....I will hire you, here’s what I pay, here are the perks, here are the hours....take it or ADIOS...there are thirty people behind you seeking this job.
http://hollywoodlife.com/2014/09/09/apple-announcement-live-stream-iphone-6-iwatch-rumors/ iWatch was paraded around for the public 4 months before... I doubt he disclosed anything about it that wasn’t already made public... the “confidentiality breach” sounds like a convenient excuse... I think his suit probably has more merit than many lawsuits he has filed on AAPL’s behalf...
In Muslim countries Friday is the Holy Day, like Christian Sunday.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.