EEOC seeks sanctions in JBS USA discrimination case

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a motion to impose sanctions against JBS USA, a unit of São Paulo, Brazil-based JBS SA, for losing or destroying evidence in a religious discrimination and retaliation case. In a statement, JBS USA denied any wrongdoing. “The company is confident that no documents relevant to the case have been lost or destroyed,” a spokesperson for the company said, “and its lawyers will be responding to the EEOC’s motion.”In the original lawsuit, which was filed in 2010, the EEOC claims JBS refused to allow Somali Muslim employees to pray according to their religious beliefs. The lawsuit also claims that the company retaliated against Muslim employees by disciplining them or firing them when they requested their evening break be moved so that they could break their fast and pray closer to sundown during Ramadan in 2008. Ramadan is a holy month in the Islamic faith which requires daytime fasting.Now, the agency is alleging that JBS USA lost or destroyed documents relevant to the long-running litigation.