Fast casual Mexican chain Chipotle is facing a lawsuit filed by a federal agency on behalf of a former employee who said she was subject "to a barrage of harassing conduct based on her religion by her supervisor" because she wore a hijab.
The religious harassment and retaliation lawsuit was filed Wednesday by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of Areej Saifan, a Muslim woman who was employed at a Chipotle in Lenexa, Kansas.
Saifan "explained that she wore the hijab because of her religious beliefs and could not remove it," the federal suit said, but the "harassment continued over several weeks, pressuring" her to "remove her hijab."
An assistant manager that repeatedly harassed Saifan asked her "approximately ten to fifteen times over the course of approximately one month," the suit said.
On one occasion, the assistant manager "reached out, grabbed her hijab, and yanked. As a result, part of Saifan's hijab came off, exposing her hair," the suit said.
Saifan told a shift supervisor about the assistant manager's repeated behavior, but the shift supervisor, according to the suit, told the assistant manager once to stop the behavior and did not report the harassment to higher management.
Because of the "management's repeated failures to address the harassment," Saifan resigned and put in her two weeks' notice on August 10, 2021, the suit said.
"It is Chipotle's usual practice to continue scheduling employees to work during the two-week period following an employee's two-weeks' notice," the suit said, but in Saifan's case, Chipotle did not schedule her "for any new shifts after she submitted her two-weeks' notice."
"We have a zero tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind and we have terminated the employee in question," Laurie Schalow, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer for Chipotle said in a statement emailed to CNN. "Chipotle's engaged and hard-working employees are what makes us great, and we encourage our employees to contact us immediately, including through an anonymous 800 number, with any concerns so we can investigate and respond quickly to make things right."
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is requesting a jury trial in Kansas City along with "appropriate backpay with prejudgment interest," among other things, the suit said.
"People of faith have a right to work free from harassment based on their religious beliefs and practices," Andrea G. Baran, regional attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's St. Louis District office, said, according to a news release from the agency. "Harassment of women and teen girls who choose to express their religious beliefs by wearing modest clothing or head coverings is never acceptable."