The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has found that networking technology company Cisco may have subjected Middle Eastern and Muslim employees to a hostile work environment, following allegations of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim comments on the company’s internal communication platforms.
The EEOC’s June determination followed a complaint filed in December 2024 by a group of Cisco employees known as Bridge to Humanity (B2H). The group had raised concerns about Cisco’s alleged business links with the Israeli military and had earlier circulated an internal open letter calling on the company to stop providing technology to the Israeli government.
The letter was reportedly signed by more than 1,700 employees out of Cisco’s workforce of more than 86,000. According to the complaint, Cisco subsequently removed the letter from an internal platform, marking it as under review. Some employees who had signed it allegedly faced harassment.
The employees also alleged that the company failed to adequately address their concerns despite repeated complaints. They eventually compiled a 76-page report documenting what they described as hateful and discriminatory comments posted on an internal messaging group called Connected Jewish Network.
The report included allegations of employees glorifying violence, making derogatory comparisons involving Palestinians and describing Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims as violent or terrorist. It also alleged that the comments created an unsafe environment even for some Jewish employees.
The EEOC further determined that Cisco had allegedly retaliated against one employee involved in pro-Palestine activities by terminating the individual.
The complaint was filed with support from Legal Aid at Work, a nonprofit legal services organisation. The EEOC determination does not itself constitute a final court judgment, but it indicates that the agency found sufficient grounds to conclude that the allegations could amount to violations of US anti-discrimination protections.
The case puts renewed attention on how multinational employers handle political expression, religious and ethnic identity, internal employee networks and allegations of harassment, particularly when geopolitical conflicts spill into the workplace.
