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Sikh woman gets into trouble for wearing a kara

Britain's ethnic minorities have long complained of racial discrimination and violence. Their attempts to bring these incidents to light have paid off at times, but they continue to happen.

A fortnight ago, a Sikh factory worker claimed she was threatened with dismissal after refusing to take off her kara (religious bangle).

Inderjit Kaur said bosses at the supermarket food chain RF Brookes allowed whites to wear wedding rings while performing exactly the same job.

"The only reason they treated me this way was because of my religious beliefs," she told the industrial tribunal hearing her case.

The tribunal was told the dispute began in March when a new manager told Kaur, 35, that her kara breached rules banning jewellery on the production line at the Leicester-based firm.

"They said I would lose my job if I didn't comply, but to me my religious beliefs are a lot more important than my employment," she said.

After refusing to remove the kara -- which she had worn for seven years at the factory -- Kaur was taken off the production line and relocated to another division.

The move, she felt, was insulting as she was forced to work long hours where the deep freezers were located. Disturbed at having to cope with harsh conditions, she went on sick leave. Then, she says, she was threatened with the sack.

At the tribunal, Kaur said: "What they are saying about the kara is rubbish. It is an important part of the Sikh religion -- we believe it protects us from evil and temptation."

RF Brookes denies Kaur's claim of racial discrimination.

Kashmir Singh, general secretary of the British Sikh Federation -- which is backing Kaur's case -- blasted her employer's double standards. "A wedding ring is much more likely to come off the finger than the metal kara worn over the wrists, which has to be cut off," he said.

The hearing has been adjourned for next month.

In yet another sensational case, four young factory workers were awarded 48,000 pounds in damages after their bosses were found guilty of running a regime of "systematic discrimination".

Twins Asma and Saima Nazir, 21, Naheed Akhtar, 19, and Shabnum Sharif, 18, were forced to endure horrific conditions by employers at the Yorkshire Envelope Company in Bradford.

They were ordered not to speak Urdu, barred from celebrating Id, racially abused by senior staff, and suffered unjustified wage cuts.

The tribunal in Bradford, which heard the case, described the firm's actions as "consistently unbelievable and contradictory" and blasted its attempts to cover up the truth.

"Rarely have we seen a case where there has been so much evasion and where it is clear that the respondent has set out to smear the applicant," the tribunal said.

The girls are obviously jubilant. Saima Nazir said: "I am really happy we won. The way Yorkshire Envelopes treated us was nasty, and what made it worse was the way they tried to make it out it was our fault."

Saima and her sister Asma also won a ruling that the company had constructively dismissed them.

Courtney Hay of the Northern Complainant Aid Fund, who represented the workers at the tribunal, said: "These four women have displayed remarkable courage in asserting their rights. They have set an excellent example for others to follow."

The Commission for Racial Equality described the case as "one of the most serious of race discrimination involving young workers on the record".

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