Gold’n Plump awards workers in settlement

Gold’n Plump awards workers in settlement
By Britt Johnsen • bljohnsen@stcloudtimes.com • November 11, 2008

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Buzz up! A group of up to 100 Muslim people will receive $365,000 after discrimination cases involving Gold’n Plump were settled earlier this fall.


Attorneys representing employees of Gold’n Plump Poultry Inc. released a statement late Monday explaining details in two cases involving Muslim employees who worked in plants in Cold Spring and Arcadia, Wis.

Gold’n Plump could not be reached for comment Monday evening.

When the federally mediated settlement was announced in September, the poultry processor had agreed to allow Muslim workers to take short prayer breaks and to refuse to handle pork. The agreement also requires employers to accommodate the Islamic prayer schedule and the belief that the Quran prohibits touching and eating pork products.

The plants will add a paid break during the second half of each shift to accommodate prayer. Timing of the added break can now fluctuate during the year so it can coordinate with Muslim prayer schedules. During Ramadan, for example, prayer times vary.

A group of 40-80 people who made religious discrimination claims against Gold’n Plump will share $215,000, said Nick Pladson, trial attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The suit was brought in 2006 on behalf of nine people who worked at Gold’n Plump plants in Cold Spring and Arcadia, Wis.

The suit also alleged that a group called the Work Connection based in St. Paul required Muslim applicants to sign a form saying they could not refuse to handle pork — and that Muslim workers who didn’t sign the document weren’t hired. The group hired workers for Gold’n Plump plants.

A group of 26 employees will share $150,000 regarding those complaints, Pladson said. Those workers will be offered a job at Gold’n Plump if they were previously turned away because they didn’t sign the form. The agency also won’t use the form, according to the statement released Monday.

The Work Connection could not be reached for comment late Monday. But earlier this fall, Jeff Wold, vice president of the Work Connection, said his company “categorically denied all the allegations of discrimination” and was “happy to say that this case has been resolved.”