Written by Cherilyn Crowe
New York City’s transportation authority announced it will drop a policy that required Muslim and Sikh employees to put the agency’s logo on their religious headgear, according to the New York Daily News.
The paper reports that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has tentatively agreed to revise its dress code so that no logo will be required on items worn on the head, but any headwear has to be blue, matching the transit workers’ official uniforms. This change would settle a federal lawsuit challenging the MTA’s logo requirement.
In the wake of 9/11, the MTA began requiring its logos on religious head coverings, including Sikh turbans and Muslim headscarves. According to reports in 2009, the transit authority claimed they were concerned about riders not being able to recognize whether an individual was an official MTA worker. Standard uniforms have at least three other MTA logos visible, according to NBC New York.
“I think this ends a very troubling chapter in the history of the MTA,” said Amardeep Singh, a lawyer representing six Sikh subway workers, to the New York Daily News.
