Racism Costs NCL
Cruise Line Setttles In $485,000 Suit Involving Muslims
May 16, 2008
Fat Is Bad - Muslim Is Good
In the United States Of America, it is illegal to discriminate against, certainly to terminate the employment of workers because of their gender, the color of their skin, their national origin, their religion or because of their physical disability.
Though courts have upheld the rights of employers to terminate employment of workers because they are fat, terminating workers because they are Muslims, doesn't wash with the federal government here.
This week Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) settled a work-place suit to the tune of $485,000 for seven men, all who were Muslim. The reason for the termination was simply put, because they were Muslim. While the cruise line admits that, they say they have done nothing wrong by terminating those men.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said on May 15, 2008 that the lawsuit, filed in August 2006, was settled for $485,000, with the money being divided among a total of seven employees who previously worked on board NCL's "Pride of Aloha" cruise ship.
The lawsuit involves the wrongful terminating by NCL in July 2004. Six crew members were terminated. The next day a seventh quit, fearing he would also be terminated. All seven were considered for the suit.
The incident that triggered the firings occurred when one of the Muslim men asked another crew member about the location of the ship's security office, engine room and bridge. The crew member notified ship's security and NCL contacted federal authorities to investigate whether the man, as well as six other crew members who were Muslims, posed a threat.
The crew member says that he was just familiarizing himself with the ships most important areas.
But, public perception played a huge roll in this case, as many passengers in American states boarding airplanes and cruise ship became overly hysterical after the 9/11 attack in New York City. People were seeing Muslim's everywhere all of sudden, with each and everyone of them acting suspiciously, simply because they were Muslim.
In this case of employer discrimination, the United States Government has decided that NCL violated the constitutional rights of employees to a discrimination-free workplace.
