Mail Carrier Wins Fight to Wear His Skullcap on Duty

A Jewish postal worker won his fight to wear a skullcap uncovered while delivering mail when the federal Equal Opportunity Employment Commission ruled in his favor.

“I think I’ve struck a blow for religious freedom,” postal carrier Howard Singer said of the decision, which was based on civil rights laws that prohibit religious discrimination.

The federal agency’s decision, which took effect Monday, also could affect other postal employees who want to wear religious garments because the U.S. Postal Service has a nationwide dress code, officials said.

The ruling in Singer’s favor will govern similar cases in the future, especially those involving other Jewish postal workers who want to wear skullcaps, said Mike Cannone, a Postal Service spokesman in San Diego.

“We’d have to let that person do it,” he said.

A copy of the EOEC decision was mailed to Singer and postal authorities last week. It became official Monday when Singer’s supervisor said he could start wearing his skullcap without covering it with a Postal Service cap.

The skullcap, also called a yarmulke, is a traditional Jewish head covering that usually is worn during times of prayer and study.

“I’m delighted, I really am,” said Singer, 51. “It just dragged on for so long and all I wanted was to wear my yarmulke.”

Singer, a postal employee since 1981, began wearing the skullcap to work two years ago to protest problems he was having in getting religious holidays off and what he considered to be general anti-Semitism in the post office.

His supervisors initially told Singer to remove the skullcap, but later told him he could wear it if he kept it covered with a regulation Postal Service cap when he was working in public.

Postal officials argued that the yarmulke is not part of the service’s approved uniform, and that the issue was one of corporate identity.

But federal labor officials disagreed, with the EOEC investigator saying that the Postal Service would have a tough time proving that wearing a skullcap causes an undue burden.

“If Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not protect this practice, it would be hard to imagine what it does protect,” the 12-page decision said.

It also bars postal authorities from requesting outside substantiation when employees make religious requests. Postal authorities had asked Singer’s rabbi to write a letter explaining why it was necessary to wear the skullcap at work.

“We can’t ask why anymore,” Cannone said. “We have to just consider their requests and say yes or no.”

Morris S. Casuto, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the EOEC ruling “validates what many, many people have been saying--that the post office has reacted in an inflexible manner and an inconsistent manner.”

Casuto said he warned postal authorities several months ago that their position regarding Singer’s skullcap was “in effect making a determination of another person’s religious view.”