After Ariens Co. was thrust into the national spotlight last month, CEO Dan Ariens said work at the Brillion manufacturing plant is returning to normal.
“The original story said we terminated them and we forced them not to pray, which was not the case,” Ariens explained.
Last month, about 53 Muslim employees left work when the company said it was going to start enforcing its onsite prayer policy.
Ariens said those employees were taking unscheduled break to pray, which disrupted the production line.
“A lot of our Muslim employees have figured out how to pray within our break times,” Ariens said.
Since the company enforced the policy, 32 Muslim employees have returned to work, but the company said it did have to terminate seven others.
“They continued to take a prayer off their normal break time. We’ve tried to work with them, we’ve given them several warnings, and talked to them every time about why this doesn’t work, and it just came to a termination for those seven,” said Ariens.
The Council on American Islamic Relations in Minneapolis has been working with several of the employees that left Ariens.
“We are still looking at all of our legal actions,” said Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the group.
He added more needs to be done so a situation like this doesn’t happen again.
“The company needs to look at all the reasonable options and right now they have come up with nothing, even though these employees tried to offered a number of ways to accommodate,” Hussein said.
Ariens added the entire ordeal has been a learning experience and the company is just looking to get back on track.
Ariens is a manufacturer of small engine products, including snowthrowers and lawn mowers.