Signs and the Toronto City Hall building are pictured on August 13, 2021. Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
More than 100 Sikh men have lost their jobs as private security guards for the City of Toronto because of a policy that requires them to be clean-shaven so they can wear proper N95 respirators while on the job.
At a time when mandates to wear masks against COVID-19 have been lifted in most places in the city, the World Sikh Organization of Canada called the policy “absurd” and said the guards were being punished for their faith, which requires them to grow their faces you hair
“If you ask me to shave my beard, that’s kind of a request [another] a man to flay his skin,” said Birkawal Singh, who was fired from his position as a security guard at one of the city’s 24-hour shelters last month. “It’s really humiliating and devastating for me.”
Mr. Singh was hired for two months by ASP, a private security contractor used by the city. He has worked in several other private security firms for the past two years before that. At each of those jobs, his employer and client were satisfied that he wore blue surgical masks, he said.
In mid-June, the ASP began enforcing the city’s “clean shave policy,” which was implemented in January. The company told Mr. Singh that if he wanted to continue working at the shelter, he would have to remove his beard.
Mr Singh said the ASP offered to redirect him to a site that would not require him to wear a tested N95. But the new position would pay minimum wage—significantly less than he was making. He refused the transfer.
In internal correspondence that was shared with The Globe and Mail, a manager at a Toronto security company told her team of security guards that security personnel employed by the City of Toronto conducted compliance checks on contractors and noted which ones were not clean-shaven. The manager said the city deducted nearly 200 billable hours from his company for noncompliance.
He explained to his employees that if they showed up to work without a clean shave, they would be immediately sent home without pay.
According to Don Peat, a spokesman for Toronto Mayor John Tory, Mr. Tory asked city officials to investigate the policy after receiving a complaint from the World Sikh Organization of Canada in mid-June. Mr Peat said the mayor had contacted staff members this week asking them to work with contractors to “resolve this issue immediately”.
In a written statement, city spokeswoman Erin Wheaton described the dispute as one between the security guards and their private employers, not the City of Toronto. She said the city is investigating a complaint that is secure security contractors “failed to house their own staff.”
She confirmed that the city’s Shelter, Support and Housing Authority requires employees and contractors who may come into contact with people who have or are suspected of having COVID-19 to wear N95 respirators. But she added, without offering specifics, that department policy allows contractors some flexibility.
“Contractor employees seeking accommodation should have their claims assessed in accordance with the contractors’ own human rights policies,” she said.
In an emailed statement, Isabel Paneli, a spokeswoman for GardaWorld, one of the city’s security contractors, said all of its employees who do not meet the city’s requirements “have been offered other and equivalent opportunities within the organization while this measure shall not be removed’.
ASP could not be reached for comment, nor could STAR Security, another security employer whose Sikh employees lost their jobs.
The World Sikh Organization of Canada said it has heard from several security guards that they are offering accommodation by their employers were essentially demotions: they were offered positions with lower pay or less seniority, such as Mr. Singh. Some were simply fired.
Many of the guards affected came to Canada from India as international students and their work was key to their applications for permanent residency, said Balpreet Singh, legal counsel for the World Sikh Organization of Canada.
This is not the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic that Sikh men working on the front lines have faced challenges related to their beards and wearing appropriate protective gear. Many police forces adapted quickly to accept Sikh and Muslim officers. In March 2020, the RCMP required all of its members to be equipped with N95 masks. But the force reversed that decision six months later after a campaign by the World Sikh Organization sparked media coverage.
In this latest case, the organization has focused on appealing to the city, mayor and council members, rather than putting pressure on the security firms.
“At the end of the day, these are businesses,” said Mr. Singh of the World Sikh Organization of Canada. “If they’re losing money as a result of these people continuing to work, they know the solution is to remove them from their jobs.”
Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a quick summary of the day’s top headlines. Sign up today.
Add Comment