Muslim group airline fired worker who wanted time off for prayer meeting

A Muslim advocacy group is accusing Southwest Airlines of denying a Maryland worker’s request for a schedule change so he could attend a Friday prayer meeting and then firing him when he took a day off.

In a complaint to the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the carrier fired Baltimore-Washington International Airport ramp agent Justin Mavins after the company’s “accommodations team” said he couldn’t switch shifts to attend Jum’ah services on Friday afternoon. During the company’s December meltdown, he then used a personal day to go to the prayer meeting and was fired shortly after.

Mavins had recently been hired for the ramp agent job at Southwest, so he only was allowed a limited number of attendance issues before he was terminated, the complaint said.

“What I ended up having to do was call in this morning using a personal day, which puts me at a disadvantage as I am a new employee and I am still on probation,” Mavins wrote in an email on Dec. 16., according to the complaint. “I literally must attend the religious service.”

Southwest Airlines has had issues with CAIR before. In 2021, the group said Southwest discriminated against a Muslim woman wearing a hijab. In 2016, a Muslim passenger was removed from a flight after speaking Arabic on the plane.

The company didn’t respond to a request for comment on Mavins’ complaint.

Jum’ah is the weekly congregational service for Muslims that takes place at a mosque around noontime prayer on Fridays, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. It’s akin to Sunday worship service for Christians, the group said, and employers should be able to accommodate workers by allowing them to take an extended lunch break or coming in late or early.

“All workers have the constitutionally-guaranteed right to reasonable religious accommodation in the workplace,” said a statement from CAIR staff attorney Zanah Ghalawanji. “We will protect the religious rights of American Muslims and all those who seek to practice their religious beliefs while at work.”

Mavins said he submitted a request to have his Friday shifts switched so he could start in the afternoon, after his prayer meeting. But that request was denied.

Mavins was forced to use another personal day a week later to attend the prayer meeting, but the company was in the middle of a massive weather and technological meltdown and executives in Dallas had said that any use of personal days would result in immediate termination, the complaint said.