Fact Sheet - Stop Discrimination and Harassment at Supervalu Shop 'N Save

IPAD: Anti-Discrimination Committee of the Islamic Council of Greater Pittsburgh

STOP DISCRIMINATION AND HARASSMENT AT SUPERVALU SHOP ‘N SAVE

FACT SHEET

In March, 2005 Dana Harris, and African-American Muslim woman employee of SUPERVALU Shop ‘n Save in the corporate store in Pittsburgh, was told “we don’t tolerate any religions here” while she was being trained for a Customer Service position. Her training was then stopped. Until that point she had been given rewards for being a good employee.

Dana reported this to the Shop ‘n Save management at the store and they repeatedly assured Dana she would get an apology and the problem would be corrected, but there was never an apology and her training was not continued even though she was told she would be great for Customer Service. From that point the store management started to interfere with her timing breaks for prayer (which she was allowed to do before). In April Dana was also told by a Human Resource employee that her training was stopped because of a manager’s objection to her religion and prayer, which was heard by other employees.

In May a male employee started harassing Dana by slightly touching her and then saying sarcastically that she could not be touched by men as a Muslim woman.

On May 20^th senior human resources staff from SUPERVALU met Dana and her advocates. Nicole March lead the meeting for SUPERVALU, who in 2004 was a finalist for the Food Marketing Institute’s MAXX (Maximizing People Potential) Award for Human Resources. The following is comparison of what was promised to Dana in the meeting and what happened:

   SUPERVALU’s promise                              SUPERVALU’s actions

Problems are supposed to be addressed immediately and on site	Dana was told her complaints would be addressed but they never were
Contents of the meeting would be kept confidential	Immediately after meeting with Dana management spoke to other employees about the meeting in public
Retaliation towards Dana will not be accepted or tolerated	After the meeting Dana suddenly started being scheduled for days she was clear she was not available at, resulting in being labeled a “no call no show”.
SUPERVALU would acknowledge the meeting in writing	Nothing has been provided to Dana in writing
SUPERVALU will “look into everything”	Neither a confirmation nor a denial of Dana’s claims have ever been given

As of June her mother and daughter who also work at the same store were harassed as well, and other employees who associated with Dana felt pressured to leave the store in various ways.

Please join with us to tell SUPERVALU Shop ‘n Save to formally apologize to Dana in writing and to assure her and other employees in writing that they will not be retaliated against or harassed any further.