Kansas Chipotle manager demands to see Muslim employee’s hair, grabs, removes hijab: EEOC

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has accused Chipotle of religious harassment and retaliation after a manager at a Johnson County restaurant grabbed and partly removed a Muslim employee’s hijab when she refused his demands to see her hair.

The EEOC filed the lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kansas, on behalf of Areej Saifan, who worked at the Chipotle Mexican Grill at 16101 W. 87th St. in Lenexa.

The EEOC contends in the three-count suit that Chipotle deprived Saifan of equal employment opportunities due to the harassment based on her Muslim faith, the hostile work environment that forced her to resign and the retaliation that followed when she complained.

In a statement responding to the suit, Laurie Schalow, Chipotle’s chief corporate affairs officer, said that the company encourages employees to contact the company, including through an anonymous 800 number, with concerns so that they can be investigated and respond “to make things right.”

“We have a zero tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind and we have terminated the employee in question,” Schalow said.

The EEOC, however, contends that the manager was not terminated for the harassment, rather it was for engaging in a romantic relationship with another supervisor, which was against company policy.

Grabbed hijab, yanked it

According to the lawsuit, Chipotle hired Saifan in 2020 as a line server at the Lenexa location. In observance of her faith, she wears a hijab, including when she worked for Chipotle.

At the time, Kevin Silva Garcia was assistant manager for the restaurant and supervised Saifan.

Beginning in early July 2021, Garcia began asking Saifan, who was 19 years old at the time, to remove her hijab because “he wanted to see her hair,” the suit contends.

Saifan declined, explaining she wore it because of her religious beliefs. She also told him requests to see her hair were inappropriate for the workplace and that removing her hijab would be similar to taking off clothing and exposing her body, according to the suit.

Garcia, however, continued to pressure Saifan, demanding that she let him see her hair approximately 10 to 15 times over the course of about a month, the lawsuit says.

Some of the requests were made in front of other employees, including Kim Benavente-Fernandez, who was a shift manager and also supervised Saifan.

She complained to Benavente-Fernandez about the harassment, saying it was unwelcome and made her uncomfortable.

Benavente-Fernandez told Garcia he should stop asking to see Saifan’s hair, but never took any further actions to stop him, the suit contends. Benavente-Fernandez also failed to report the alleged harassment to higher management, which the suit contends violated Chipotle’s policies.

The lawsuit identified Benavente-Fernandez as the person who was in the romantic relationship with Garcia.

On Aug. 9, 2021, Saifan was closing the restaurant for the evening and Garcia again asked to see her hair.

When she again refused, he reached out, grabbed and yanked her hijab. This caused the hijab to partially fall off, exposing her hair.

“Only the pins holding the hijab in place kept it from falling to the ground,” the suit says.

Benavente-Fernandez, who was also working, witnessed Garcia’s attempt to physically remove Saifan’s hijab.

The lawsuit says Saifan reported Garcia’s repeated harassment and physical attempt to remove the hijab to the store manager and Chipotle’s field manager but doesn’t identify when she did.

Hostile work environment

On Aug. 10, 2021, as a result of threats by Garcia and management’s failure to address the harassment, Saifan resigned, giving two weeks’ notice, according to the suit.

Although she listed Aug. 24, 2021, as her last day, Chipotle didn’t schedule her for any new shifts, which was unusual because the company’s usual practice is to continue to schedule employees up to their last day, the EEOC contends in the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, other non-Muslim employees who quit at the same time as Saifan continued to be scheduled for shifts at the Lenexa location.

The store manager contacted Saifan on Aug. 17, 2021, asking if she would like to be transferred to a different location so “that way you don’t lose your job,” the lawsuit said.

On Aug 20, 2021, Chipotle terminated Garcia’s employment.

Under the unlawful harassment claim, the EEOC contends that Garcia’s actions created a hostile work based on religion, and that Chipotle knew or should have known about the harassment but failed to prevent or correct it.

Because of his conduct, Saifan was deprived of her rights to equal employment opportunities based on her religion, according to the lawsuit. The EEOC also contends that because of the hostile work environment, Chipotle discharged her because of her religion.

“A reasonable person in Saifan’s position would have felt compelled to resign when Saifan did,” the lawsuit says.

The EEOC contends that Chipotle retaliated against her by refusing to schedule her for shifts unless she was willing to work at a different location, which would have allowed her harasser to continue to work at the Lenexa restaurant.

The EEOC sent a letter to Chipotle in January saying it found reasonable cause to believe Saifan’s claims. It attempted to work out an agreement with the company, but was unable to reach one that the EEOC found acceptable, according to the lawsuit.