The World Sikh Organization (WSO) is demanding the city of Toronto change what it calls a “discriminatory” rule included in its contracts requiring all security guards to be clean-shaven.
The organization said Monday it wants the city to compensate and reinstate the roughly 100 bearded Sikh security guards who lost their jobs as a result.
The WSO said the city has required security guards who work for contractors such as GardaWorld, ASP Security and Star World to wear N95 masks while on the job in group settings such as respite centers since January.
The city confirmed that employees and contractors working with its Department of Shelter, Maintenance and Housing (SSHA) must wear an N95 mask and must be clean-shaven so that the masks provide effective protection against the transmission of COVID-19. However, the city said the WSO complaint stems from private contractors failing to accommodate their own employees.
Sikh security guards fight the rule.
“I feel very humiliated,” said Birkawal Singh Anand, who works for ASP Security.
Anand says he applied for a religious accommodation when he was notified of the requirement last month, but was told it would mean being moved to a lower position at the company with lower pay. He said he had to choose between that, getting another job, being fired, or shaving his beard.
CBC News reached out to ASP Security and other companies with questions about how they enforce the city’s policy.
For Sikh worshippers, leaving their hair uncut is an important tenet of their faith, the WSO said.
Balpreet Singh, a lawyer with the organization, said Toronto’s rule feels particularly discriminatory because the policy is being introduced while almost all other pandemic restrictions have been lifted in Ontario — including most mask-wearing mandates.
“These security guards served at the height of the pandemic without these rules, when things were at their worst,” Singh said.
“But now that, you know, vaccines are very common and things are opening up, they’re being told, ‘No, you can’t serve here because you have a beard.’
Singh says he has repeatedly contacted city and council members. He said he sent a formal letter to the city on June 7 to “work with its security contractors to find a solution.”
The City says it is reviewing the situation
The City of Toronto said in an emailed statement that it was aware of the WSO’s complaint and said all affected workers were employed by contractors, not their own corporate security department.
The city said the SSHA policy allows accommodations for city employees, but contractor employees seeking accommodations must have their requests evaluated “in accordance with the contractors’ own human rights policies.”
The WSO’s Singh said his organization has tried to work with contractors and reach out to the city in recent months to offer alternatives to keeping Sikh security guards on the job and keeping them healthy, but those efforts have been met with ” nothing more than platitudes’.
Singh said his organization would consider legal action if there was no change.
“This is clearly a violation of human rights protections in Ontario,” he said.
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