Jewish employee sues Delta after being served a ham sandwich and his request was denied

A Jewish Delta Air Lines employee is suing his employer for alleged discrimination based on his religious identity, a lawsuit says.

The lawsuit, filed in August and obtained by Fox News Digital on Tuesday, accuses Delta of[ing] in a pattern of intentional discrimination and retaliation against ethnically Jewish, Hebrew and/or Israeli employees based on their race and ancestry.”

Sasi Sheva, a California resident, is the plaintiff in the case. According to court documents, Sheva is Israeli and has been employed by Delta for two years.

The lawsuit describes an incident in which Sheva rushed to the runway due to a last-minute change in plans. According to the document, Delta ignored Sheva's request for a “safety break” to “obtain a meal that accommodated his vegetarian restrictions due to the unforeseen time changes that invalidated his break.”

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“Plaintiff’s motion was denied,” the lawsuit states.

Since Sheva was hungry and had no opportunity to eat, he asked his Delta managers if they could stop in the hall so he could buy a vegetarian snack. Instead, he was given pork, which is forbidden in Judaism.

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“Despite the plaintiff's employee profile clearly stating that he speaks Hebrew, is Jewish and is a vegetarian, he was served a ham sandwich,” the lawsuit states. “Although the defendant conducts cultural sensitivity training for different types of passengers for a variety of customer profiles, such training does not take into account the cultural and religious needs of Jews.”

A Delta Air Lines Boeing 767 passenger plane arrives at JFK International Airport in New York City on February 7. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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The plaintiff then complained to his manager, but the lawsuit says “no steps were taken to ensure that such an incident would not happen again.” Sheva later asked to take Yom Kippur off and was made to feel miserable, the lawsuit says.

“Delta's Accommodation Manager informed Plaintiff that to initiate an Accommodation Review, he would need to provide a written statement in his own words identifying the religious belief and practice requiring Accommodation, as well as documentation to support his request, such as a statement from his religious leader on religious organization letterhead confirming his status as a practicing member of the religious organization and explaining the religious belief and practice requiring Accommodation,” the lawsuit states.

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“Plaintiff has never before been required to submit to such intrusive scrutiny of his private beliefs and practices, nor, to his knowledge, has any other Delta employee been required to do so.”

A Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-800 airliner approaches John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, February 13, 2020. (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)

After Sheva provided the required documentation and made an appointment to inspect the property, he was reportedly told that there was “nothing [Delta] could do because any concessions would have undermined Delta's seniority system and the only option was to handle the matter on its own.

“Delta's response was not only unaccommodating, but after imposing unnecessary and unjustified hardships on Plaintiff in his accommodation request process, it also contained no attempt to find a mutually acceptable solution,” the lawsuit states.

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A Delta spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit to FOX Business, but said, “As a global airline connecting the world, Delta does not tolerate discrimination of any kind. This is part of our deeply held values.”