Sawmill responds to Sikhs' complaint

published by Asianpost on Wed, 04/02/2008 - 15:00

Sikhs have worn turbans in

B.C. mills for nearly a century

International Forest Products, the subject of a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal petition by its two Sikh employees over the company's mandatory hard-hat policy, has offered them alternative jobs.

However, the petitioners and Sikh leaders, who don't want to set a bad precedent, met at Vancouver's Ross Street gurudwara yesterday to continue the fight against the policy.

Interfor, which has about 650 employees, including many Sikhs, said it was willing to accommodate the aggrieved employees in other positions with the same wages and work conditions. The company has to respond to the Human Rights Tribunal notice by April 9.

Mander Singh Sohal and Kulwant Singh Sahota, who wear turbans, have approached the human rights panel against the new hard-hat policy, saying that it impinged on their religious rights granted by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

While Sohal has worked with Interfor since 1988, Sahota joined it only four years ago. The latter is on a disability leave, and has been offered a new assignment whenever he rejoins. Ric Slaco, vice president of the company, told the media Monday that the new policy was chalked out after employees protested last November.

Thanks to it, he said, injuries at their sawmills have come down since then. He also revealed that other Sikh employees, who wore turbans, have complied with the new policy. They were either wearing hard-hats over turbans or had removed their turbans, he added.

-Indo-Asian News Service