Former employee of Indalex suing over smoking issue

In the suit, the plaintiff also says he was mistreated because of his race and religion.

YOUNGSTOWN — A Warren man has filed a lawsuit in federal court, demanding more than $1.5 million for being forced to work in an area in which smoking was allowed at the Indalex Inc. extrusion plant in Girard.

Sai-E Johari of Oriole Place filed the civil rights suit himself Sept. 12, alleging that the company refused in July 2006 to move him to an area of the plant free of smoking or to move smokers to an area outside of the plant. Ohio’s Smokefree Workplace law, which banned smoking in most work places, went into effect in December 2006.

Johari named the company, three Indalex employees, Callos Personnel Services on Youngstown Warren Road in Warren and one of its employees as defendants in the suit.

About the suit

In the suit, Johari said Thaddeus Smith, an employee of Callos, interviewed him for employment and asked him about his religion and disabilities.

Johari’s suit says he explained that he was of the Kimit Tau Rastafarian faith and was allergic to cigarette smoke.

Smith assured him that he would not be assigned to any job that permitted smoking inside the facility, and Johari paid for and passed a pre-employment drug screening and started to work at Indalex, the suit says.

After witnessing employees smoking at his work site, he asked a supervisor for an accommodation but was refused, the suit says.

Johari’s lawsuit said he was not treated with respect because of his race [black] and because he wears dreadlocks, which is a sign of consecration in his religion.

The suit said Johari’s First and 14th Amendment rights were violated.

Johari seeks the job back, one year of back pay, compensatory damages of $500,000 and punitive damages of $1 million.

Calls to the Indalex corporate offices on East State Street went unanswered Friday. Johari could not be reached to comment Friday.