CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Bryan Kirsh delivering his opening statement
Los Angeles, CA - A California state court jury heard opening statements Friday in an employment discrimination lawsuit filed by a former Ralphs grocery employee claiming he was fired after complaining about supposed failure to accommodate his work schedule for religious obligations, and the full trial is being webcast gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
Plaintiff Mohamed Saifudeen alleges that management at multiple Ralphs grocery stores denied his requests for Saturdays off to attend Islamic religious services, in addition to denying requests to change his schedule during the Ramadan holiday. He accuses the store of manufacturing excuses to fire him in 2016 after he complained to his union, but Ralphs maintains Saifudeen was fired legally due to insubordination and failure to satisfactorily perform his job as manager of the dairy department.
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Attorney Bryan Kirsh of Shegerian & Associates told the Los Angeles County jury that Saifudeen worked as an “exemplary” employee at Ralphs for 25 years, but that he was ultimately placed in the untenable position of having to “choose between his job and his religion.”
Kirsh told jurors that Saifudeen was repeatedly subject to insulting comments about his religious observance, and that he was suspended and reinstated multiple times for relatively minor infractions like misplacing a barcode scanner that should have resulted in less severe disciplinary actions.
He argued the situation came to a head in the summer of 2016 when a manager flatly denied Saifudeen’s requests to work earlier shifts so he could attend evening Ramadan services, and that his manager began looking for an excuse to terminate him soon afterwards.
“He told Mr. Saifudeen that he needed to choose between his religion and his job,” Kirsh told the jury. “He showed no tolerance for Mr. Saifudeen’s religion.”
A few weeks later Saifudeen overslept and arrived an hour late for his scheduled shift. After working an extra hour to make up the time he requested to leave to pick up his daughter from school but was instructed to remain at the store until the dairy shelves were fully restocked. He left the store without his manager’s approval and was subsequently suspended again. He declined a reinstatement at reduced pay and was formally fired a short time later.
Kirsh didn’t lay out a specific amount of damages he would seek at the conclusion of trial but told jurors the incident caused Saifudeen “severe emotional distress” and prompted him to develop clinical depression. Under California law plaintiffs can pursue non-economic damages for emotional distress in employment discrimination cases.
Defense attorney Daniel Kessler of Burkhalter Kessler Clement & George LLP presented a substantially different version of events, telling jurors that the incidents Kirsh devoted the bulk of opening statement to such as Saturday scheduling and Ramadan vacation requests had nothing to do with Saifudeen’s eventual termination.
CVN screenshot of defense attorney Daniel Kessler delivering his opening statement
He characterized Ralphs managers as being “exceedingly tolerant” of Saifudeen’s scheduling requests and accommodating many of them, but he maintained Saifudeen’s conduct on the day he left work without permission would be grounds for termination for any employee regardless of their religion.
Kessler argued that Ralphs already allowed Saifudeen to return to work after numerous prior suspensions, and that neither his union complaints nor his supposed scheduling conflicts gave him a pass to engage in conduct that Kessler described as unacceptable insubordination.
“He refused to do his job to get the dairy department in shape before leaving his shift,” Kessler said. “Period. That’s it.”
The trial before Judge J. Stephen Czuleger is expected to take up to three weeks to complete, and CVN’s live and on-demand coverage will continue for the duration of the proceedings.
The case is captioned Mohamed Saifudeen v. Ralphs Grocery Company, case number BC719286 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
E-mail David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com
