The Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the United States Attorney in Manhattan have filed suit against the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company charging the 55,000 employe corporation with “unlawful employment practices which discriminate against Jews and other minority group members.”
In a complaint filed last Thursday in Federal District Court in Manhattan the government alleged that Metropolitan Life followed a hiring policy which limited employment opportunities of Jews and other minority group members and that the company failed to make reasonable accommodation in certain shift work assignments in order to enable Jews to observe their Sabbath.
Commenting on the suit Howard I. Rhine, president of the National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs (COLPA), which has represented many Jews charging discrimination because of Sabbath observance, explained that the Federal Law under which the suit was brought requires employers to make reasonable accommodation to the religious needs of employes unless the employer can demonstrate that such accommodation would cause undue hardship on his operations.
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