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A Delta Air Lines flight attendant is suing the airline over what he claims religious discrimination after being served a ham sandwich and not being allowed to take the day off for Yom Kippur. The flight attendant is relatively new (2.5 years with Delta), but claims there is a pattern of discrimination at play here.
Sasi Sheva, 44, was born in Israel and resides in Encino, CA. His lawsuit states that Delta “has engaged in a pattern of intentionally discriminating and retaliating against ethnically Jewish, Hebrew and/or Israeli employees based upon their race and ancestry.” There are two main incidents that are driving this lawsuit: crew meals and scheduling.
The New York Post reports that in July 2022, Delta changed his schedule in the middle of a trip (which happens frequently). He was transported in a van to his next flight to keep it from being delayed and was unable to purchase Kosher or vegetarian food for himself as a result (he keeps both Kosher and avoids eating meat). The lawsuit continues that he was not allowed to “stop for a few minutes in the concourse so that he could purchase a vegetarian snack.” His profile “clearly stat[es that] he is Hebrew-speaking, Jewish and vegetarian, [but] he was provided with a ham sandwich.”
The second incident that is called out in the lawsuit is around crew scheduling and occurred in October 2022. When you are with an airline for only a few years, you are low on the seniority list. Sheva alleges that his request to take off Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, was “refused in bad faith and with no justification.”
I have sympathy for people with restricted diets (whether for health, religious, or personal choices) and I also have respect for people’s religious beliefs. But, I do not feel that Delta went out of its way to discriminate here. I’m not a lawyer (so this is in no way a legal opinion), but it seems like a catering error due to a scheduling change and then not being senior enough to choose when to work are the culprits here.
Anthony’s Take: I’m not sure this is going to have legs, but we’ll see when it gets to court. In my opinion, Delta might not have accommodated all of this employee’s requests and made a mistake, but I don’t see discrimination or anti-semitism at play based on what has been released.
(Image Credits: Lukas Souza and Photovs.)
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2 comments
One of the MAIN questions asked on Delta’s initial application is, “Are you willing to work weekends AND HOLIDAYS.” Every flight attendant knows that days off are granted by seniority! He was actually in an advantageous position, as practicing Jews are both a small minority in the U.S. and At Delta. Thus, most employees would not want Yom Kippur off. This employee did not bid his schedule well, otherwise he would have easily gotten it off.
I think the guy picked the wrong profession for his gripes.
More distressing to me is equating ethnicity and religion. Saying that a religion is a Race sounds like something out of Germany 90 years ago and I find it incredibly disturbing for anyone say such things. Are Muslims a Race as well then? Christians? Hindus?