Myself and a colleague have been accused of being racist!?

Question

Now then as Managers where we work we have had to take a few members of staff on secondments to answer phones and take orders.
Now one of the girls who i know quite well and i'm very friendly with her sister is muslim and wears the head gear wanted one of the secondments. We said no for 2 very good reasons 1 she will not be able to answer phones because we use 1 ear headsets and she won't be able to hear the customer which she herself has confirmed she can't hear due to her head wear. She is not allowed to use a standard telephone as health and safety won't allow it due to acoustic shock, thats why we have specialist headsets. Second reason was she refused to take calls on the sales floor due to the same fact that she could not hear the customer (even though when she applied she said she could hear) so she was given an offline role which p issed all the other staff off as offline roles are like gold dust. Now we are being accused of being racist as we have said we are unable to offer

Her a secondment. We dont have an offline function available for her. We do have an offline advisor who deals with our complaints but we have refused to take her off that work due to her experience and now we are being accused of racial preference.
So my question is this, Are we being racist because we refuse to change our entire department around to accomodate one person who can't even do the work required?

Curious, she has confirmed the headscarf that she wears blocks the sound. The agency that she works for followed the letter of the law in making sure she was unable to take calls.

Just to clear something up the offline role she was given was by another dept although i felt that she should have been fired due to the fact she cannot do the job she applied for.

I think she said she could do it as she thought we used normal telephone handsets buit once out of training she realised they were headsets.

Myself and my colleague are doing nothing about it we have made our decision and i'm sticking with it.
My manager has been informed of the situation and backs us, it's the advisor thats screaming the racist card. Which is silly since i know her sister very very well (she used to work in same dept as me) even her sister is shocked by her attitude over it all.

Answer 1

You are not being racist, no. Don't worry about it, you have done nothing wrong. You have very good and logical reasons are to why you refused her, and anyone else with half a brain will realise that. They'll also see that's she's the one being pathetic playing the race card.

Answer 2

well you cant blame her for applying to a job which she has been accepted for. Thats just like a job with a specification of 'you must hold a degree'. If the selection process is half soaked and anyone can apply then they will. If she could not do the job this should have been picked up on before you gave her the job. Giving her the job means you have opted to accommodate for her circumstances. why did you say no? surely if she has asked for the position she must feel she can do the role, otherwise she wouldnt have asked. I understand you think she cant but you havent even given her a chance to prove otherwise. If you had done this and then seen for yourself she cannot hear/ do the job which im sure shell agree on if she cant then fair enough you have the right to say no, but to dismiss her before she has the chance to try is wrong.

If there was a disabled man who needed an arm rest to use the computer what would you do? Youd order an arm rest. If a pregnant woman had a bad back and needed a back rest you'd order one! The same with a muslim girl who cant hear.. you need to order a headset which she can use!! You have to do what you can to accommodate people. At my workplace thats what my managers do ive seen it with my own eyes!!

So unless you can say you've tried to accommodate her i think you will have some explaining to do when the investoigation is done as all these things will be asked!

Answer 3

Oh dear, it's such a sad state of affairs today that people just shout racism for every little thing. It hampers cases of real racism.

But no, as everyone agrees, this is not racism in any way. If this lady herself has advised that she cannot hear on the headset through her headscarf then how can she expect to have a job working on the phone? It seems to me, reading what you have written, she wants one of the good jobs and now you have said no she's thrown her toys out of the pram and played the race card.

You are doing the correct thing by sticking to your guns, and your HR dept should step in and settle this prickly situation before it explodes.

I was once accused of being racist because I tried to organise a pig-roast at a work function and I was accused of not giving a toss about people religion! I had done a survey and everything to see what people wanted to do and that was the favourite so I went with it. I didn't mean to offend anyone, but no-one in management stepped in to help me so I was left to smooth it out myself. In the end the company do was cancelled and we did nothing.

You did the right thing.

Answer 4

If she knows you that well and still has the gall to call you a racist, then she is nothing but a bi_ch. If she herself admits that she cannot do the job, then what the hell is she complaining about. Give her two choices:
1 Let it go as she knows that the only reason that she has not been given the position is because you respect her beliefs to wear her head gear
2 Give her the possition and then when the complaints come in about her, then you will have no option but to fire her.
As it is she has two choices. Alot more than some workers have. Tell her to get off her hight horse and stop expecting to be treated as different as she is the same as any other employee, if they cant do the job they were hired for then they are out the door.

Answer 5

Whats the point of working in call centre if you can't do the job your hired for? If this woman can't answer the phones because of the headgear she's wearing prevents her from being to hear the other person on the other end of the line would be pointless having her employed in your company.
Now she's been given a cusy job working on an offline role which is like gold dust in your company and other staffers are annoyed because she has been preferential treatment is unfair to the other staff and also smacks of racism because of her religion because these people are damn good at using this as an excuse. No if she can't do the job she was employed to do then she shouldn't be there give it to someone else who can do the job and let her go.
No I don't why you should have preferential treatment for just one person whatever their religion. I think she's being unreasonable and she is the one who is being racist. I would seek a lawyers advice then fire her she is driftwood she can't do the job she's employed to do there is no point in employing her.

Answer 6

Your'e home and dry if you have followed all the guidelines. The worst she can do is attempt to take you to a tribunal, but she will have to put up a substantial amount of money now before they will accept a case such as this - it's nuisance value. If you do go to tribunal or if you are threatened with it make sure that she knows she could lose her deposit and that your company would also be prepared to ask for all the costs against you.
Stick it out - its a worry but generally they back off and if not be glad that you work for a good boss.
The same type of thing - but a disability claim - happened to me about 5 years ago and i pursued it aggressively and made sure that my business neither lost money or its reputation for looking after staff.

Answer 7

hi, i'm intrigued at this question. So i'm going to hammer the nail on the pinnacle, Or be particularly blunt; no longer all black persons are that way, they could be messing with you for in spite of reason, or merely jerks. besides the shown fact that i'm from america i'm not sure how human beings act in yet otherwise over there, yet as a mix of races or in spite of this is merely how they have been stated. There are particularly some black people who're merely as a racist using fact the main racist white guy, factor is they are those being racist in the event that they are effecting your paintings merely deliver it up with administration.

Answer 8

As the headscarf or hijab is not obligatory under Islam, I don't think that any company should be forced to accomodate those who insist on wearing it to the detriment of their work.

Some muslims wear scarves which only cover their hair, leaving their ears free. Ask your colleague to try this method. If she refuses then give her a warning - after all, in effect she'd be refusing to work.

Anyway, how come the sister can do the job (presumably wearing similar clothing) but she can't? Is she swinging the lead?

Answer 9

It isn't your fault that she is unable to meet the basic requirements. How can she possibly expect to do a good and efficient job if she is unable to help the customers because of her headscarf? In my opinion, she should be grateful she got a role which the other staff would give their right arms for, instead of throwing a childish fit. After all, it's not down to you that she can't do the job, it's down to her and her religious beliefs (I'm not condemning her religious beliefs, I am just saying that this is the reason she cannot do the job). Good luck, and I'm sure that whoever she complains to will tell her that you were in the right. xxxx

Answer 10

Provide an In-Ear type headset which fits under the headscarf. We have a number of people who have headscarves who use these and they work fine. There are the occasional awkward members using their religious attire to cause problems, but there are many others who use other reasons as well so its not confined to religion at all.

I would stick to your guns if i were you, especially if the person concerned has lied about being able to do the job in the first place.