The second occurrence of discrimination is one that I can never prove, but I have been a security officer long enough to know what standard operating procedures are. Therefore, when they are set aside, I start wondering why. The nature of what I believe to discrimination was ethnic and religious in nature. The funniest thing about this is that I am not of the targeted ethnicity and I reject the targeted religion.
From March – June, I was assigned to the Ulta Cosmetics warehouse here in Phoenix while working for Allegiance Security. My duties were centered around loss prevention, which required me to be by the employee entrance so I could inspect all containers for client merchandise. The client allowed me to bring my laptop to work during slow periods as long as it did not distract me when the employees did come through.
One night in June, I was working on the Microsoft Power Point slide presentation to be used prior to the start of my Arabic church’s Sunday morning service. My pastor had e-mailed me a copy of the bulletin that he does on Microsoft Word and I was copy and pasting the various sections. Because my church ministers to the Arab community, the texts were both in English and Arabic. On the night in question, I was working on the following slide:
كيف أصبح عضوا في هذه الكنيسة
HOW TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH
يجب أن أقابل الرب وما فعله من أجلي على الصليب
YOU MUST HAVE A MEETING WITH THE LORD AND SEE WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR YOU
يجب أن أعترف في حاجتي الى خلاصه العجيب وأختبر ذاك الخلاص
YOU MUST CONFESS YOUR NEED FOR HIS WONDERFUL SALVATION AND EXPERIENCE IT
يجب أن أعلن رغبتي للإنضمام إلى الكنيسة
YOU MUST DECLARE YOUR DESIRE TO JOIN HIS CHURCH
تجب أن أتبع وصية المسيح بالمعمودية بالتغطيس
YOU MUST HAVE A MEETING WITH THE LORD AND SEE WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR YOU
يجب أن أعترف في حاجتي الى خلاصه العجيب وأختبر ذاك الخلاص
YOU MUST CONFESS YOUR NEED FOR HIS WONDERFUL SALVATION AND EXPERIENCE IT
يجب أن أعلن رغبتي للإنضمام إلى الكنيسة
YOU MUST DECLARE YOUR DESIRE TO JOIN HIS CHURCH
تجب أن أتبع وصية المسيح بالمعمودية بالتغطيس
YOU MUST FOLLOW IN BAPTISM THROUGH IMMERSION AS HE COMMANDED
While I was working on this slide, a client employee (whom I had a good rapport with at the time) briefly glanced over my shoulder. Apparently, he only noticed the Arabic script as he went out the door. He asked me if I was reading “al-Qaeda c***” and left without giving me a chance to respond. The client, whom had made no complaints about me prior to this, requested that I be removed from site three days later.
Because we security officer are “contracted employee,” we are not entitled to any right of due process from the client. Technically speaking, the client can have us removed for site just because they feel like it. Our employers themselves are required to give us due process before imposing disciplinary action, but the client does not. A run of the mill transferring of a guard to another site is not considered a disciplinary action in and of its self because their employment is not interrupted.
Security industry standard operating procedure for a guard being removed from site at the client’s request is to call him or her into the office and tell them why. When I went in, that told me not to worry about it. They did not believe what the client said and all of my fellow guards speak highly of me. What? Why did my supervisors go to my fellow guards in order to get their opinion of me? Why will they not tell me what the clients said about me? I have been in the security industry for most of the past seven years and this is not consistent with the industries professional standards.
The following week, my supervisor came to check on me at the site were they had transferred me. As we talk, I found opportunity to talk to him about my involvement with my church. It is just something that Christians like me naturally do. He claimed to be a Christian as well, but I did not sense that he was asking more about my church out of curiosity. I felt like he was being an inquisitor right from the beginning when he said, “So your a Christian.”
I entertained the possibility that they could be another explanation as to why I was removed from site up until this conversation. If I am right, Ulta Cosmetics put Allegiance Security in a bind. This act of discrimination, if I could prove it, could have resulted in a lawsuit against both of them. However, you are supposed to give the client what they want in order to keep the contract. On this occasion, Allegiance Security got to have their cake and eat it too.
Because we security officer are “contracted employee,” we are not entitled to any right of due process from the client. Technically speaking, the client can have us removed for site just because they feel like it. Our employers themselves are required to give us due process before imposing disciplinary action, but the client does not. A run of the mill transferring of a guard to another site is not considered a disciplinary action in and of its self because their employment is not interrupted.
Security industry standard operating procedure for a guard being removed from site at the client’s request is to call him or her into the office and tell them why. When I went in, that told me not to worry about it. They did not believe what the client said and all of my fellow guards speak highly of me. What? Why did my supervisors go to my fellow guards in order to get their opinion of me? Why will they not tell me what the clients said about me? I have been in the security industry for most of the past seven years and this is not consistent with the industries professional standards.
The following week, my supervisor came to check on me at the site were they had transferred me. As we talk, I found opportunity to talk to him about my involvement with my church. It is just something that Christians like me naturally do. He claimed to be a Christian as well, but I did not sense that he was asking more about my church out of curiosity. I felt like he was being an inquisitor right from the beginning when he said, “So your a Christian.”
I entertained the possibility that they could be another explanation as to why I was removed from site up until this conversation. If I am right, Ulta Cosmetics put Allegiance Security in a bind. This act of discrimination, if I could prove it, could have resulted in a lawsuit against both of them. However, you are supposed to give the client what they want in order to keep the contract. On this occasion, Allegiance Security got to have their cake and eat it too.
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