The Council on American-Islamic Relations of Michigan (CAIR-MI) filed a complaint with the the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission this week after ExpressJet Airlines placed a Detroit-based flight attendant on a leave of absence for objecting to serve alcohol based on her religious beliefs as a Muslim.

 The complaint states that the airline originally agreed Charee Stanley’s request for the religious accommodation after she raised the issue with her supervisor in June.

Melanie Brown, one of the airline supervisors, told Stanley she could make arrangements with the other flight attendants on duty, so she wouldn’t have to serve alcohol to passengers who requested it.

“Ms. Stanley followed that arrangement, and there has never been an issue,” said Lena Masri, senior staff attorney for CAIR-Michigan. “It’s a reasonable accommodation that has not caused any undue hardship for ExpressJet.”

However, on August 2, a disgruntled employee filed a complaint against Stanley, claiming she was not fulfilling her duties as a flight attendant because of her refusal to serve alcohol. 

Stanley’s colleague seemed to have other issues with her religion as well. The complaint stated Stanley had a book with “foreign writings” and noted that  she wore an Islamic head scarf.

The complaint prompted the airline to place Stanley on a leave of absence. She received a letter from the airline stating she was being placed on unpaid, administrative leave for a year, after which an employee may be terminated.

“They did state that the reason they were placing her on administrative leave was because of her refusal to serve alcohol, and that they no longer considered it to be a reasonable request,” Masri said.

CAIR says denying Stanley’s request violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employers from discriminating against workers based on religion, sex, color and national origin.

Stanley had worked for ExpressJet for three years and, before her request, she did served alcohol to passengers. 

However, recently she decided to convert to Islam and learned she was prohibited from both serving and consuming alcohol.

Airline spokesman Jarek Beem said by email: “At ExpressJet, we embrace and respect the values of all of our team members. We are an equal opportunity employer with a long history of diversity in our workforce. As Ms. Stanley is an employee, we are not able to comment on her personnel matters.”

Stanley’s flights were based out of Detroit, and she was in the process of leasing an apartment in the Metro area when she was placed on leave. Stanley has since moved back to the Cincinnati area, where her family lives.

ExpressJet, based in Atlanta, makes an average 2,200 daily flights, operating as American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express and serving 190 airports including several in Michigan.