Oroville mill worker wins civil-rights suit

Religion won out over expediency recently, when Redding-based Sierra Pacific Industries agreed to reinstate Luciano Cortez in his job as a mill worker at the giant timber firm’s Oroville plant. Cortez will also receive $110,000 in damages.

As the CN&R recently reported (”Suits allege discrimination at timber giant,” Newslines, Sept. 11, 2008), Cortez was one of two SPI employees—the other was at its Red Bluff mill—who were plaintiffs in anti-discrimination lawsuits brought by the San Francisco office of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Sierra Pacific Industries is a family-owned business based in Anderson, with numerous satellite sites (mills, cogeneration plants, etc.) elsewhere in Northern California and in Washington state. According to its Web site (www.spi-ind.com), it is California’s largest private landowner, with some 1.7 million acres, and the second-largest lumber producer in the United States.

Cortez had worked at SPI’s Oroville mill since 2001. In 2005, SPI asked him to begin working a Friday swing shift. Cortez, a Seventh-day Adventist, refused, saying his Sabbath lasted from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown and God prohibited him from working then.

“Work is very important, but it is more important to obey God,” Cortez said, according to an EEOC press release. “I need to fulfill my obligations to God and my religion, but with my work I could not.”

At the time, said SPI spokesman Mark Pawlicki, the mill was unable to accommodate Cortez. Many workers prefer not to work Friday evenings, he explained. So Cortez was terminated in June 2005. He was then 38 years old.

He subsequently contacted the EEOC, and in September 2007 that agency filed suit in U.S. District Court, charging SPI with religious discrimination.

Since then, the EEOC has filed another discrimination suit against SPI, this one on behalf of Ahmed Elshenawy, who worked as a grader and sorter at SPI’s Red Bluff Mill Works Division.

Almost immediately following 9/11, the suit charges, co-workers began calling Elshenawy such epithets as “Saddam,” “Arabian,” “stupid Egyptian,” “Osama” and “sand jockey.” When Elshenawy reported this treatment to his superiors, they allegedly failed to take action, and the abuse continued unabated.

In fact, according to a press release from the EEOC, “Sierra Pacific subjected Elshenawy to disproportionately harsh treatment and fired him after four years of employment due to his Egyptian national origin and in retaliation for protesting the harassment.”

After first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement, the EEOC filed suit against Sierra Pacific on June 25, 2008, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. That suit is still working its way through the system.

All parties seemed pleased by the Cortez settlement.

Cortez will be paid $16.98 an hour working a Monday-through-Friday day shift and maintain his original seniority with no loss of benefits.

EEOC’s regional attorney, Bill Tamayo, noted that SPI had acknowledged that Cortez was a good employee. “I think for the commission it’s really great to get somebody reinstated at the same salary and also accommodate his religious beliefs. … The message here is that it’s good to work with people.”

In a Dec. 31 article, the Sacramento Bee reported that SPI’s attorney, David Dun, said that that, after looking at all the factors in the case, including the further cost of litigation, the company decided to settle.

“We knew Mr. Cortez is sincere in his religious beliefs,” Dun told the Bee. “So we would rather see him get the money than spend it on further litigation.”

Dun said the company had been able to make an adjustment in the way the plant operates to accommodate Cortez. “We can do that for one person, but for more it would become a serious problem.”

Pawlicki echoed that sentiment: “We felt this was the best for all sides.”