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Thursday, September 18, 2008

KEEP IT UNDER YOUR HAT


KEEP IT UNDER YOUR HAT

By BRUCE GOLDING

September 18, 2008 --

A nonprofit group that spruces up Midtown is violating the civil rights of four Rastafarian workers by ordering them to hide their dreadlocks under their uniform caps, the feds charged yesterday.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit in Manhattan federal court against the Grand Central Partnership, alleging that the hair-raising order discriminates against the men because of their religious beliefs.

The men - Deon Bailey, Brian Lee, Frantz Seraphin and Milton Marcano - all work as security patrol officers for the partnership.

The partnership's dress code requires officers to have their hair "properly cut" or tucked "neatly inside their security department issued uniform caps."

But the men's "growing dreadlocks have become increasingly difficult to tuck fully inside the uniform caps," the lawsuit says.

All four have been repeatedly reprimanded, and Bailey, Lee and Seraphin were briefly suspended from work.

The dress code also requires that officers be "clean shaven," and in 2005, Seraphin, who had started growing a beard "in accordance with his Rastafarian beliefs," shaved it off after he was threatened with firing, according to the lawsuit.

The men declined to comment.

"In our view, the Rastafarians are being treated differently," said EEOC lawyer Robert Rose.

The lawsuit seeks back pay and interest, as well as punitive damages.

A spokesman for the partnership said the lawsuit was "without merit" and said the partnership had made "numerous good-faith efforts to resolve the matter."

"This lawsuit is surprising since it comes on the heels of a previous accommodation made by GCP, in consultation with union representatives, to furnish custom-made larger hats for use by the employees named in this lawsuit. This custom-made hat was successfully tested and approved by one of the complainants, who also serves as a union delegate," spokesman David Roskin said.

Yesterday's case follows a similar lawsuit filed in 2006, when the EEOC sued United Parcel Service in New Jersey on behalf of another Rastafarian, Ronnis Mason, who was told he had to shave his beard. That case is awaiting trial.
[NYP]

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