A former Metro Transit worker is suing the Metropolitan Council, claiming religious discrimination and workplace retaliation drove him out of his job.
A lawsuit filed Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court alleges Jihad Hamoud, who is Muslim, left his job in 2022 after repeated questioning of his religious accommodations, discrimination based on his faith, and disciplinary measures from management after reporting problems.
It also claims management sent police with Hamoud to pray after repeatedly declining his requests to do so during a 2021 discipline meeting with management.
The Met Council can’t comment on ongoing litigation, spokesman John Schadl said in a statement. Metro Transit is just one service run by the regional planning organization.
The lawsuit comes after an investigation by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights found probable cause that the Met Council violated state antidiscrimination law and retaliated against Hamoud.
The council appealed the November 2024 ruling, but Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero reaffirmed her decision in January this year.
Minneapolis law firm Storms Dworak brought the lawsuit on Hamoud’s behalf.
Hamoud had been an employee of the Met Council since 2010, when he was hired as a Metro Transit bus driver, according to court documents.
He transferred to a job cleaning and maintaining Metro Transit facilities in 2019. Work was based out of a central hub in St. Paul.
While in that position, Hamoud experienced multiple incidents of religious discrimination, the lawsuit claims.
In one incident detailed in the lawsuit, a supervisor blamed the bathrooms becoming dirty on Muslims “‘who pray in there and wet up the whole place and throw tissue and paper towels all over the place and get the toilets clogged.’” Hamoud told the supervisor Muslims must pray in clean settings, the lawsuit said.
In another incident, according to the lawsuit, a Met Council janitor told Hamoud that Muslims were creating problems and leading to a conflict with Christianity.
Problems continued, but when Hamoud met with managers to discuss his concerns about religious discrimination, he was placed on administrative leave, according to the lawsuit.
When Hamoud returned to work, a manager accused Hamoud of driving past him and the janitor to intimidate him, and later called Hamoud into a meeting with two police officers present, according to the lawsuit. The manager allegedly accused Hamoud of insubordination.
As they waited for a union representative, Hamoud asked to pray, which, as a practicing Muslim, he is required to do five times a day. The manager allegedly directed the two police officers to “keep an eye on” Hamoud while he prayed, causing him to, among other things, feel “degraded, humiliated, disrespected, vilified, and discriminated against.”
Hamoud was placed on a five-day suspension without pay and escorted off the premises. In a later meeting between Hamoud’s union and Met Council, the group’s assistant director of Facilities Maintenance said the situation was “blown out of proportion,” and “border[ed] on ridiculous,” the lawsuit claims.
Hamoud returned to work, but continued to experience discrimination and eventually resigned in May 2022. He is seeking a total of $100,000 in damages and any other relief a court deems appropriate.
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