Three Muslim women say they faced religious discrimination while working for Amazon

Three Muslim women said that they have been discriminated against while working at the warehouses of American e-commerce company Amazon in Minnesota, Business Insider reports.

The Amazon workers have filed a federal complaint against the company, claiming that they feared «taking time off to pray or to go to the bathroom in case they were fired».

According to the same source, the three women, of Muslim Somali descent, have their complaint backed by the American civil-rights group Muslim Advocates, which sent a letter on the matter to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency that administers and enforces civil rights laws against workplace discrimination.

«Lost time would reduce a worker's 'rate' or how many items a worker packs per hour», Muslim Advocates said in the same letter. «Employees who regularly fell short of the rate — simply because they attempted to observe their religious obligations to pray —faced repercussions such as 'write-ups' that could lead to termination», it added.

Commenting on these accusations, an Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider that «prayer breaks less than 20 minutes are paid, and associates are welcome to request an unpaid prayer break for over 20 minutes for which productivity expectations would be adjusted».