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04/02/2008

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Two Sikh sawmill workers have launched a complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal after they weren't allowed to work because they refused to wear hard hats over their turbans.




Mander Singh Sohal, left, and Kalwant Singh Sahota say they always wore turbans at Interfor's Acorn Mill in North Delta, B.C., and were never injured. (CBC)


Mander Singh Sohal, Kalwant Singh Sahota, their lawyer and a dozen supporters held a press conference outside the Ross Street Sikh Temple in south Vancouver Tuesday.

Sohal and Sahota, who have been working in the province's forestry industry for more than 20 years, said they have always worn their turbans at Interfor's Acorn Mill in North Delta, B.C., and they haven't been injured.

"We worked with our turbans on in the past and we want to work the same way," Sahota said.

"I had no compensation claim [and] no sickness claim [made] with the company since 1988," Sohal said.




Interfor decided in November that all workers at its mills must wear hard hats in order to lower injury rates. (CBC)


They said they haven't worked since November, when their employer brought in a hard-hat-only policy aimed at lowering injury rates in the workplace. Interfor requires the two men to wear hard hats over their turbans.

Many Sikh men follow a religious requirement that they wear turbans with nothing over them.

Both men hired a lawyer and after attempts at negotiations failed, they filed a human rights complaint on March 9.

Ron Slaco, the chief forester at Interfor, said the company is now offering Sohal and Sahota with jobs at the same pay that don't require hard hats.

"It includes back pay, so the worker is not out of the pocket with back pay, and the worker will have a job at our site," Slaco said.

David Perry, a lawyer representing the two men, said they will continue with the human rights complaint but will consider the job offer.

Sahota said the job offer was only made after their story broke in the media.

Ultimately, they're fighting to have the company policy and law changed so that Sikhs working in sawmills are allowed to only wear a turban, he said.

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