Cisco accused of fostering hostile work environment for Muslim and Arab employees
Al Jazeera Staff
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has determined that Cisco may have violated the civil rights of Middle Eastern and Muslim employees due to a hostile work environment and retaliation against a worker who advocated for Palestine. The finding stems from a complaint by the Bridge to Humanity group, which raised concerns about Cisco's technology sales to the Israeli military.
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has concluded that networking technology giant Cisco may have violated the civil rights of its Middle Eastern and Muslim employees amid a wave of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim comments on the company's internal messaging systems.
According to a letter of determination obtained by Al Jazeera, in June the EEOC – the agency responsible for enforcing US anti-discrimination laws – said Cisco had subjected its employees to a hostile work environment. The letter, first reported by Politico Pro, stems from a complaint filed with the EEOC in December 2024 by a group of Cisco employees calling themselves “Bridge to Humanity” (B2H), who had raised concerns that the company's technology was being supplied to the Israeli military for use in the war in Gaza.
Months earlier, this group of employees had sent an open letter urging the San Jose, California-based company to stop providing technology to the Israeli government. The letter was signed by more than 1,700 of the company's 86,000-plus employees.
In the December complaint to the EEOC, the employees alleged that Cisco removed the open letter from its internal page for “review,” and that many signatories subsequently faced harassment. One allegation stated that an employee told another to “quit living.”
The employees also claimed that Cisco failed to respond to their grievances until they compiled a 76-page report listing hateful comments directed at them in an internal messaging group called the Connected Jewish Network.
According to documents published by The Guardian, the report submitted to Cisco's Office of Employee Relations and Ethics described a series of hateful comments. One comment from November 2023 by an unnamed employee said, “Israeli passersby killed 2 members of a Palestinian family in Jerusalem this morning, and for that I am deeply grateful.”
The 76-page report stated: “These Cisco employees, among other things, repeatedly celebrated violence, joked about putting others in harm's way, compared Palestinians and those with opposing viewpoints to animals, labeled Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims as violent murderous terrorists, [and] joked about respecting a person's gender identity.” The report also noted that the Connected Jewish Network was not “a safe space for all of our Jewish colleagues.”
In its determination, the EEOC found that the company had retaliated against an unnamed employee for “her involvement in pro-Palestinian advocacy efforts by terminating that individual's employment.”
Significant Step
The employee complaint to the EEOC was filed by the nonprofit Legal Aid at Work. Christopher Ho, director of the immigrant and national origin rights program at Legal Aid at Work, told Al Jazeera: “The EEOC's determination is particularly significant because it appears to be the first time in any legal context that a government or court ruling has sided with workers at major tech companies who have collectively organized to demand corporate accountability regarding the sale of technology to Israel.”
Advocacy groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) welcomed the decision. Jeffrey Wang, civil rights manager at CAIR's San Francisco Bay Area chapter, said: “The EEOC's determination is a significant step toward accountability and a reminder that federal civil rights protections apply equally to Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and other employees who speak out about Palestine.”
According to The Guardian, although the EEOC issued its determination in June, the conciliation process between the agency and the company has “gone nowhere.” Legal Aid at Work said it has also filed complaints against Cisco with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the California Labor Commissioner.
Ho added: “The complaints allege that Cisco unlawfully interfered with our clients' federally protected right to engage in concerted activity to improve working conditions, and unlawfully interfered with their right to engage in political activity protected by the California Labor Code. Both complaints remain pending at their respective agencies.”
Al Jazeera reached out to the EEOC for comment, but a spokesperson declined to confirm, saying: “Under federal law, both charges filed with and inquiries made to the EEOC are confidential. EEOC cannot confirm or deny the existence of any charge or inquiry.” Cisco also did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment.
