Racial and Religious Discrimination

[bugsychicago]

Hi All....I have been currently working for my employer for 6 years going on 7, in Chicago, IL. I was transferred from Canada to the US by my employer and work currently as an IT executive for the company. My problem is with a coworker who is 63 years old, white, ex veteran, 20 years with the company, and he is up for retirement in 2 years. I myself am 30. Over the course of the past year he has made derogatory comments about my race and religion. Being a Born Canadian/Pakistani Muslim, he has consistently called me a 'terrorist' and suggested I would blow up buildings or make comments about my religion. Although this has been happening not only with me directly, but also last month he made a similar comment in front of the CFO, another coworker, and just as of yesterday a vendor.

I am sick and tired of his behavior and finally addressed it with my boss today. She sat down today and spoke with both of us, which was very awkward for me as I was very upset. My take back from the meeting was I do not feel she or even our HR dept would do anything about this - it was basically a slap on the wrist in my opinion to him. As a side note, there was an article written in the papers about our company (we are a worldwide company, publicly held on the NASDAQ, LSE) regarding employment diversity, whereby we were scrutinized for not hiring enough minorities within our company - 100 employees (only 6 are minority).

I am not sure what my legal rights are. I really love my job, and the company I work for, and also feel indebted to my boss' for giving me the chance to work for them in the US, considering my heritage and after Sept 11th. They also provided my family and me with green cards within my 1 year of employment in working for them in the USA. I am really at a cross roads on both pursuing this issue or just outright quitting and finding other employment.

Any suggestions on whether I should seek legal advice? Or let it pan out with my HR dept, even though I would not be satisfied with the outcome (i.e.: they may put him on probation for the remaining 2 years he has left - in the event another occurrence like this happens he will be fired).

Appreciate anyone's comments or feedback. Thank you.

 

[muggsyj]

This is not legal Advice!


Hey,

I fully sympathise with your situation but it take a big man to turn the other cheek, I know you should not have to put up with this childish attitude from a long standing employee.
What you should bare in mind is that this person maybe too stuck in his ways to accept change. You state he only has 2 years left, find it in your heart to try and forgive.

If you are truly a religious man then you will understand, some older people are scared of change and find it hard to adjust. Being a Muslim you should try to educate the people around you that are scared of your religion and make them understand that it is individuals of all faiths that have different veiws on how the book is read and there is good and bad from all sides.

You did the correct thing in reporting this attitude to your HR department and at least they have tried to sort this situatiuon out. Me personally, I like to try and compromise any situation and then if all my efforts are in vain, then you should persue the situation to your HR department again and let them know that you cannot put up with this situation any longer.

We live in unusal times my friend, lets not add any more wood to the fire and try to live togather in peace.

Good Luck and i hope this stuation fades away into the distace for you.


Take care


Mark.