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Topic: SEASONAL SAFETY
Workplace Safety for Muslim Employees During Ramadan
August 31, 2009
Ramadan is a holy month in Islam, marked by fasting from sunrise to sunset and by prayers. This year it started around August 21 and runs to about September 19.
If your employees are among the Muslims currently observing Ramadan, as a safety supervisor you need to be mindful of a few holiday safety and health concerns affecting these workers during their holy month:
- Dehydration. Those who are fasting do not eat or drink anything, even water. Effects of dehydration can range from mild (a headache) to severe (heat stroke).
- Low blood sugar. Fasting can cause hypoglycemia, with symptoms of confusion, slurred speech and fainting.
- Fatigue. Evening prayer and social activities associated with Ramadan can contribute to fatigue during work shifts. This is the case with holidays celebrated in many religions and cultures.
- Motor vehicle accidents. Your workers are at greater risk for an off-the-job traffic crash during any holiday including Ramadan. This is a great time to remind everyone to drive the speed limit, buckle up and don’t drive when tired or distracted.
Respecting Cultural Diversity in Your Workplace
During Ramadan, you have a great opportunity to promote cross-cultural awareness. Here are a few ideas:
- Invite a Muslim member of your work team to explain Ramadan observances to everyone.
- Be sensitive to workers who are fasting if you are planning working lunches or celebrations with refreshments.
- If possible, make allowances for time at sunset for Muslims to end their fast and to pray. You might be able to provide this break by juggling lunch and coffee break schedules.
- If your company has a cafeteria, see if you can arrange for meals to be saved for people who are fasting.
- Muslim workers might want to invite their co-workers to join them at an iftar, which is the traditional fast-breaking at sunset with water and dates.
- Evenings are spent in prayer during Ramadan, so try to avoid committing workers to evening shifts and functions.
- Be aware your employees might be taking vacation days when Ramadan ends with Eid ul Fitr. This Festival of Fast-breaking includes prayer and a three-day holiday in which families and friends visit and exchange gifts.
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This was one of the best and most helpful articles I have found on bongarde. I really learned something from this article. Thanks very much
It’s interesting to me that in an online forum that’s supposed to be about safety and health, we have an article about cultural diversity. The article begins by talking about awareness of Muslims’ fasting during Ramadan, but the second half talks about “Respecting Cultural Diversity in Your Workplace,” including suggestions that we “invite a Muslim member of your work team to explain Ramadan observances to everyone.” Although I’m not opposed to learning about Muslim religious observances, I don’t think that a management-directed forum for Muslim awareness is appropriate in the American workplace.
Other suggestions are equally odd, such as the suggestion that we be “sensitive to workers who are fasting if we are planning working lunches or celebrations with refreshments.” It would seem that the author is suggesting that we cancel or postpone working lunches and company celebrations, which I think goes way too far.
Catholics fast during Lent, and Mormons fast on the first Sunday of every month. But business and industry is never counseled to accommodate those religious practices.
Telling us that Muslim workers might want to “invite their co-workers to join them at an iftar, which is the traditional fast-breaking at sunset with water and dates” is fine on a personal basis, but what does it have to do with the management of the business or enterprise? Employees invite each other to various events all the time without management intervention.
The second last suggestion is the most egregious. The author explains that Muslims spend the evenings in prayer during Ramadan, and suggests that management not schedule Muslims for evening shifts. I know of no other religions in America that request or get special treatment because of their beliefs. (Note from my own considerable experience with Muslims, I have observed that during Ramadan, they spend the evening eating and talking, like they would on any other evening.)
Lastly, let me respond that if the Muslim world wants other countries to respect their culture and religious observances, they should begin by opening up their own countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Oman, Afghanistan, and Indonesia to other religious beliefs and practices. Jordan and Turkey are exceptions, but Christians in those countries life in constant fear of Muslim retaliation. In Muslim (Sharia law) countries Christians, Jews and adherents to the far east religions of Taoism, Buddhism, etc. are driven out or killed. Any Muslim who converts to another religion in those countries and others is killed. Anyone bringing in books from another religion into Saudi Arabia such as the Bible or Book of Mormon can be caned. Just a few weeks ago a Muslim in Dallas killed his two daughters because they were beginning to adopt Western ways, such as wearing makeup, listening to popular music, and wearing stylish clothes. In Islam it’s called an “honor killing,” supposedly to retain the “honor” of the family. If Muslims want the world to accept and respect their religious practices, I suggest they begin by cleansing the inner vessel, the Muslim practices and Sharia law in Muslim countries.
(Disclaimer: my family hosted a Muslim foreign exchange student for 10 months in 2007, and we learned a lot about their religious beliefs, the Koran, and Ramadan, which we assisted our student to observe. I hold absolutely no animosity against those of the Muslim faith. I feel sorry, in fact, for their women.)