MTA: No logo needed on religious head gear
New York transit workers belonging to the Sikh and Muslim faiths will be allowed to wear religious head coverings without a government agency logo after years of bitter legal battles that started after the 9/11 terror attacks.A settlement between workers and New York City Transit, run by the state Metropolitan Transportation Authority, was announced yesterday.
"This was the back-of-the-bus solution," said Amardeep Singh, a Sikh-American community spokesman who compared the agency's dealings with the employees to the pre-civil rights practice of seating black Americans at the back of public buses.
The agency issued a policy in 2003 forcing employees who wore the traditional Sikh turbans or Muslim khimars, to work out of public view. Some were reassigned from bus routes to nonpublic jobs in depots.
The next year, workers were allowed to wear the head coverings in public -- but only with the MTA logo attached.
Singh's nonprofit Sikh Coalition represents five subway station agents and a train operator who joined four Muslim bus drivers to fight what was dubbed the "brand or segregate" policy.
Shayana Kadidal, an attorney at Manhattan's Center for Constitutional Rights, said it was "a calculated attempt" to hide certain workers "on the grounds that they 'look Muslim' and might alarm the public for that reason."
Among them was a subway train operator who became a 9/11 hero, for evacuating more than 800 people from the subway near the World Trade Center by maneuvering his train to safety after power was knocked out. Above, the towers were collapsing and dust filled the station.
"The MTA honored me for driving my train in reverse away from the towers on 9/11 and leading passengers to safety," said motorman Kevin Harrington. "I didn't have a corporate logo on my turban on 9/11."
The U.S. Justice Department brought its case under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, saying New York's transit officials had discriminated against workers.
The city agency faced separate lawsuits filed in federal court.
Harrington, who was brought up Catholic and converted to the Sikh religion, said the policy "was driven by fear. I am relieved that the policy of branding or segregating Sikh or Muslim workers is coming to an end."
In a statement released Wednesday, the MTA New York City Transit said the settlement "contains no finding of fault or liability."
The transit agency said it agrees "to modify the headwear portion of the NYCT uniform policy to permit employees in those titles to wear turbans, headscarves, and certain other forms of headwear that do not contain the standard NYCT-issued logo." But any head coverings must be blue -- the color of standard transit employee uniforms.
NY Const. Art. 1, Sec. 3 is not only for Sikhs.
NY PML
§ 109. Supplementary regulatory powers of the commission.
Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of law, the commission
through its rules and regulations or in allotting dates for racing,
simulcasting or in licensing race meetings at which pari-mutuel betting
is permitted shall be authorized to:
1. permit racing at which pari-mutuel betting is conducted on any or
all dates from the first day of January through the thirty-first day of
December, inclusive of Sundays but exclusive of December twenty-fifth,
Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday; and
2. fix minimum and maximum charges for admission at any race meeting.
* NB Effective October 1, 2012Won't the Sikh Coalition help see that Nassau OTB is open every day of the year without rereligious preference
Open On 1st Palm Sunday, Otb Rakes In $2m
BY JERRY BOSSERT DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Monday, April 14, 2003New York City Off-Track Betting made history yesterday, taking bets on Palm Sunday.Since
1973, when Sunday racing was made legal in New York State, race tracks
have been allowed to operate every Sunday except for Palm Sunday and
Easter Sunday.While Aqueduct kept its doors shut, NYCOTB had its
betting parlors open despite a letter from the New York State Racing and
Wagering Board stating that it couldn't do so."We're not a race track," NYCOTB president Ray Casey said. "OTB's business is a simulcasting business."Bettors
responded by wagering an estimated $2 million yesterday on tracks from
around the country, including Keeneland in Kentucky and Gulfstream Park
in Florida.
You can't close Nassau OTB only on Roman Catholic holidays.
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