In the lawsuit, the EEOC asked for Spaeth to be reinstated, as well as back pay, compensatory damages and punitive . According to the EEOC's lawsuit, a supervisor at Arizona Discount Movers frequently made racist comments to an African American employee named Clinton Lee. information only on official, secure websites. Under the two-year consent decree, the businesses will revise their anti-racial harassment policies; create an 800-hotline number for employees to report complaints about discrimination, harassment and retaliation; and conduct exit interviews of employees who leave the company. For Deaf/Hard of Hearing callers: The Fourth Circuit also decided that discriminatory discrete acts could support a hostile work environment claim even if it is separately actionable. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates. In August 2011, New York University agreed to pay $210,000 in lost wages and compensatory damages to settle a racial and national origin harassment lawsuit by the EEOC, alleging that an African NYU Library employee from Ghana was subjected to racial slurs, such as "monkey" and "gorilla" and insults such as "do you want a banana," "go back to the jungle," and "go back to your cage" by his mailroom supervisor. 2:14-cv-02740 (W.D. The harassment included a life size noose made of heavy rope hung from a beam in a class member's work area for at least 10 days before it was removed; the regular use of the "N-word"; racially offensive comments made to Black individuals, including "I think everybody should own one" and "Black people are no good and you can't trust them" and "Black people can't read or write." It is illegal for the concerned employer to also retaliate against the individual who is pursuing any claims of age discrimination Settlements against the employer. EEOC v. U-Haul Co. Int'l & U-Haul Co. of Tenn., No. EEOC v. Dart Energy Corp., No. consent decree approved Dec. 1, 2017). After the first interview, the recruiter allegedly advised her to take out her braids to appear more professional. In the lawsuit, EEOC alleged that Day & Zimmerman, through its foreman at the Poletti Power Plant in Astoria, Queens, N.Y., had subjected Carlos Hughes to physical and verbal racial harassment that included racial insults and derogatory stories referring to African Americans as stupid and incompetent, as well as frequently tripping Hughes, and once kicking him in the buttocks. A blind individual applied as a night warehouse loader after his company eliminated his previous position as a driver's aide. In January 2010, a Georgia car dealership agreed to pay $140,000 to settle a race discrimination suit. In November 2007, the Commission upheld an Administrative Judge's finding of discrimination on the bases of race (African-American), sex (female), and disability (cervical strain/sprain) when complainant was not accommodated with a high back chair. Despite being considered a stellar performer, following her e-mail, the DM was reprimanded, threatened with a PIP, accused of being disloyal to the company, and terminated. In the first lawsuit, the EEOC charged that Bay Country's owner repeatedly used racial slurs and fired a secretary in retaliation for her opposition to the racial harassment. This evidence included a White manager's statement that if the Black recommending official hired the Black aide based on her the strength of her interview and her demonstrated ability to interact and work one-on-one with clients, "people are going to think" nonetheless that she was selected "because she was Black." Ready Mix denies that racial harassment occurred at its worksites. EEOC v. A.C. Widenhouse Inc., No. Under the agreement, Cabela's is required to appoint a diversity and inclusion director who will report directly to the company's chief administrative officer and set hiring goals designed to achieve parity in the hiring rates of white and minority job applicants. Hurley also agreed to pay about $200,000 in March to settle a lawsuit filed by three nurses. 15-11850 (11th Cir. In April 2017, Sealy of Minnesota paid $175,000 to resolve a charge of racial harassment filed with the EEOC. The EEOC took the case to trial and won, with a jury awarding Nelson $187,000 in back pay on his retaliation claim. EEOC v. Wells Fargo Financial Michigan, Inc., Case No. Aug. 16, 2011). In May 2009, a masonry company agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a Title VII lawsuit alleging race and national origin harassment of Hispanic employees. In December 2004, the Commission affirmed an AJ's finding that a Black female complainant was subjected to discrimination on the basis of her race and sex with regard to the processing and approval of her application for telecommuting and her request for advanced sick leave. EEOC alleged that the African fuelers reported the harassment verbally and in writing, including by signing a written petition and delivering it to the office of Swissport's general manager at the Phoenix facility to try to stop the harassment, but the abuse continued. Other racially hostile incidents included White coworkers displaying the Confederate flag on their clothing and tow motors, threatening racial violence, making repeated references to the KKK and the n-word, telling of racist jokes, remarking that they wished they had a "James Earl Ray Day" as a holiday, and "laughing and talking about the Black guy that got drugged [sic] behind a truck in Texas[,] saying he probably deserved it." Two recent lawsuits filed by the U.S. In its lawsuit, the EEOC said the Clearwater strip club and its successor corporation, Executive Gentlemen's Club, fired a bartender because its owner said he didn't want a Black bartender working at the club. Four nurses filed discrimination lawsuits after a Hurley staff member allegedly posted a note with the father's instructions. The EEOC had charged that the company unlawfully retaliated against an employee for objecting to race discrimination. In September 2010, the EEOC filed a lawsuit against a Union City, Tenn., pork company, alleging that the company engaged in race discrimination by paying an African-American maintenance worker less than non-Black employees, subjecting him to a hostile work environment, and forcing him out of his job. EEOC v. The Laquila Grp., Inc., No. Invest., No. The JATC imposed this severe sanction despite the apprentice satisfactorily completing virtually the entire eight-term program and despite his complaints about inadequate on-the-job training from biased contractors. The motion was approved by the court and the consent decree was entered on Oct. 23. 2:11-CV-00920CW (D. Ariz. Jan. 7, 2013). In May 2010, an apartment management company paid $90,000 in monetary relief and agreed to provide affirmative relief to settle an EEOC lawsuit alleging that the company violated Title VII by firing a White manager in retaliation for hiring a Black employee in contravention of a directive by one of the owners to maintain a "certain look" in the office, which did not include African Americans. The jury found that the retailer failed to accommodate Marlo Spaeth, a longtime employee with Down syndrome, and then fired her in July 2015 because of her disability. Equal . The Agency also appeared to have violated its Merit Promotion Plan by having a lower-level employee participate in the interview panel. Cases Climbing Back Up. In January 2020, Falcon Foundry Company agreed to resolve a racial harassment class case which was filed against it by the Youngstown Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the EEOC. When the employee complained, she was told to "pray about it" or "leave" by the owner; the employee resigned. The two-year consent decree also requires the farm must hold interviews at the Georgia Department of Labor at least one day a week for two weeks "before the start of each H-2A season," and provide to the EEOC upon request a list of those people they hired, including their names, phone numbers, addresses and national origin, in addition to applicants not hired and those whom they fired, including any claims of discrimination, with those same details. Pioneer entered into a four-year consent decree that prohibits Pioneer from creating, facilitating or permitting a hostile work environment for employees who are Latino or darker-skinned. Tex. In June 2008, a landmark New York City restaurant in Central Park settled an EEOC Title VII lawsuit filed on behalf of female, Hispanic, and Black employees for $2.2 million. In April 2011, a federal district court in Tennessee reaffirmed a court judgment of $1,073,261 when it denied the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances' motion to reduce the victim's front and back pay awards. [2] As the Sixth Circuit explained: "A White employee who is discharged because his child is biracial is discriminated against on the basis of his race, even though the root animus for the discrimination is a prejudice against the biracial child" because "the essence of the alleged discrimination . According to the EEOC, the general manager of the Hampton Inn hotel advised her employees that she wanted to get "Mexicans" in who would clean better and complain less than her black housekeeping staff, even if the Hispanic hires were equally or less qualified than Black candidates. The Agency did not overcome Complainant's prima facie case of sex discrimination where the Agency explained the general mechanics of the selection process for a Lead Transportation Security Officer position but did not provide a specific . Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on Cardwell's behalf. Complainant had approximately 30 years experience as an RN, supervisor, assistant director, and manager. The ADEA applies to any employers who have 20/more employees . The complaint also alleged that the two Charging Parties were retaliated against when they were suspended for minor issues within a few months of complaining about racial conditions at the plant. Further, the agency's administrative investigation revealed that numerous Black female medical technicians at the hospital appear to have been required to perform assignments that their male Asian-Indian counterparts were allegedly not required to perform. According to the EEOC's complaint, a Black powder coater at the Bishopville plant was repeatedly subjected to racial slurs by two White employees. Retaliation claims remain the most common of all discrimination charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Furthermore, the foreman, who wore a swastika on his arm, stated that he had "cut an African from the belly to the neck" and that he "likes killing blacks and Mexicans." The company then purportedly fired the two employees, stating they had lied. Furthermore, the investigation revealed that African-American employees were assigned to more difficult and dangerous work than Caucasian employees. EEOC v. New Indianapolis Hotels, Inc., Case No. Although based on a single incident, the noose was a sufficiently severe racial symbol with violent implications that equates to a death threat. Racially offensive pictures targeted against minority employees were also posted in the workplace. The other employee was forced to resign. The consent decree also requires Hillshire to implement anti-racism training and create a mechanism for employees at its existing plants to confidentially report instances of harassment, discrimination and retaliation. 2:11-cv-01588-LRH-GWF (D. Nev. settlement June 18, 2015). Additionally, the restaurant will overhaul its hiring procedures and has agreed to institute practices aimed at meeting hiring targets consistent with the labor market in each of the locations in which it has facilities. Additionally, at trial, he also admitted it did not bother him to hear racially derogatory language in the workplace. In July 2007, EEOC and Walgreens agreed to a proposed settlement of $20 million to resolve allegations that the Illinois-based national drug store chain engaged in systemic race discrimination against African American retail management and pharmacy employees in promotion, compensation and assignment. 20, 2012). In January 2007, EEOC settled a racial harassment lawsuit against AK Steel Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, for $600,000. On appeal, the Seventh Circuit unanimously rejected the facility's argument that Indiana's patient-rights law permitted such practice and remanded the case for trial because the "the racial preference policy violates Title VII by creating a hostile work environment and because issues of fact remain over whether race motivated the discharge.". In November 2010, a nationwide provider of engineering and janitorial services to commercial clients entered into a 4-year consent decree paying $90,000 in backpay and compensatory damages to settle the EEOC's claim that it discharged a building services engineer at a mall in Bethesda, Maryland in retaliation for complaining of race and sex discrimination. The EEOC also charged that Danny's retaliated against the entertainers by reducing their work hours when one of them engaged in activity protected by law, including filing a discrimination charge with the EEOC. The Commission decided that the employee's allegations, if true, were sufficiently severe to state a hostile work environment claim in violation of Title VII since an employer is responsible for preventing discriminatory work environments when it is aware of such danger. The EEOC alleged that the supervisor also told Lee he could not enter the building because they were having a Ku Klux Klan meeting and put a statue of a jockey on his desk with a whip in the jockey's hand tied in a noose. 3:12-cv-3069(LTS) (N.D. Iowa consent decree granted June 24, 2013). Upon arrival, her employer realized she was Black and her supervisors gave her no direction and very few assignments despite her requests for work. In December 2014, three related well-servicing companies agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle allegations by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of verbal abuse of minority employees. In June 2013, the EEOC and J.B. Hunt Transport Inc. settled a race discrimination charge alleging the nationwide transportation company engaged in unlawful race discrimination by rejecting a Black truck driver applicant because of a prior criminal conviction unrelated to his prospective job duties. According to the EEOC's lawsuit, two Black carpenters were subjected to racial harassment during their employment by a White supervisor, who made racially derogatory comments including calling them "n----r." The supervisor also made a noose out of electrical wire and threatened to hang them, the EEOC charged. The EEOC's lawsuit charged that the staffing firms had discriminated against four Black temporary employees and a class of Black and non-Hispanic job applicants by failing to place or refer them for employment. The settlement follows conciliation of an EEOC charge under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act over claims that an African-American job candidate was denied a truck driver position at a J.B. Hunt facility in San Bernardino, Calif., in 2009 based on a criminal conviction record, which the EEOC contends was unrelated to the duties of the job. In May 2006, the Commission won a Title VII case filed on behalf of Asian Indian legal aliens who were victims of human trafficking, enslavement, and job segregation because of their race, national origin, and dark-skinned color. In December 2017, Laquila Group Inc., a Brooklyn-based construction company, paid $625,000 into a class settlement fund and took measures to eliminate race bias and retaliation against black construction laborers. The law on disability discrimination is clear and unequivocalit is illegal to discriminate against anyone at work due to their disability. The supervisor was the father of the company's president and he insisted that the "n-word" is Latin for "Black person." Co., No. EEOC alleged that an African American male sales supervisor subjected Cotton to derogatory comments about his age and made sexual advances towards him. Further, to demonstrate its strong and clear commitment to a workplace free of race and national origin discrimination, the agency agreed that if it advertises, it will devote a portion of its advertising budget to placing ads in diverse media outlets. In November 2006, the Commission found that a federal employee had been discriminated against based on his race (Asian/Pacific Islander) when he was not selected for the position of Social Insurance Specialist. 2440 Other Civil Rights In February 2009, a discount retail chain agreed to pay $7,500 to resolve an EEOC lawsuit alleging that Title VII was violated when a light skinned Black female manager subjected darker skinned African American employees to a hostile and abusive work environment because of their color. In May 2011, an IT service company entered a consent decree to pay $60,000 to an African-American employee who had allegedly been subjected to race discrimination and retaliation. The federal district court approved a two-year consent decree requiring the facility to provide training regarding anti-discrimination laws to all its employees; post a notice informing its employees of the consent decree; report to the EEOC any complaints of discrimination made by its employees; and take affirmative steps to recruit Asian nurses. The class of Black employees worked for C-1, Inc. Construction Company, a minority-owned subcontractor for Skanska. The lawsuit also alleged that when he complained, the company demoted the Black supervisor, changed his work assignments, hours, and conditions and then fired him. 7:13-cv-01583 (D.S.C. In July 2010, one of the largest temporary placement agencies in Greater Cleveland area agreed to pay $650,000 to settle an employment discrimination lawsuit brought by the EEOC. The two-year consent decree requires the company to strengthen its discrimination complaint procedure and develop and implement investigation procedures. The consent decree enjoins the company from engaging in racial discrimination. The manager was given a written warning for "shop talk" and "horseplay." EEOC v. FAPS, Inc., C.A. Consequently, despite promising the Black applicant he would be hired for a warehouse position, the company hired a less qualified White applicant. In November 2014, a Rockville, Md.-based environmental remediation services contractor paid $415,000 and provide various other relief to settle a class lawsuit alleging that the company engaged in a pattern or practice of race and sex discrimination in its recruitment and hiring of field laborers. Ind. In January 2013, a federal jury found that two Black employees of a North Carolina trucking company were subjected to a racially hostile work environment and awarded them $200,000 in damages. Under the agreement, 23 Black employees will receive $650,000. The EEOC found that the employees supervisor, an Asian woman, intentionally sabotaged complainant because she did not want a Hispanic woman to potentially serve as her supervisor. The complainant also alleged that the supervisor only wanted to promote Caucasian employees. Notice of consent decree will be visibly posted at the hotel. consent decree filed July 11, 2014). In August 2009, a Washington Park, Ill., packaging and warehousing company agreed to pay $57,500 and provide training to settle a race discrimination and retaliation lawsuit alleging that the company failed to provide a Black employee the pay raise and health insurance coverage provided to his White co-workers, and then fired him in retaliation for filing a charge of race discrimination with the EEOC. In November 2019, a federal judge approved a $1.2 million settlement resolving the EEOCs racial harassment suit against Nabors Corporate Services Inc. and another Houston-based oil field services company. The agreement follows conciliation between the EEOC and Reliable Nissan over claims that two Reliable Nissan Managers repeatedly used the "N-word" during a sales meeting, and referred to African, African-American, Native American, Muslim and Hispanic employees in a derogatory manner. The Black manager had worked for U-Haul for ten years as a reservation manager, assistant manager, general manager, area field manager and field relief manager, and held a bachelor's degree in business management as well as having received various awards for performance. 2, 2017). According to the lawsuit, the company's allegations that the Black journeyman electrician was in charge of a crew that damaged light fixtures is a pretext. 7/6/2016). March 17, 2008). This particular agreement covers from April 1991 through December 2002. A lock ( The EEOC claims that the company wanted to broaden the number of Hispanics at the store to better reflect its customer base. After the interviews, the panel selected Complainant. The harassment was both physical and verbal and included offensive comments based on race and national origin such as "nigger" and "African bastard" as well as explicit sexual expressions. The agency further alleged that FAPS refused to hire qualified African-American candidates, including by telling them that no positions were available when in fact FAPS was hiring.