Albertsons Pays $8.9 Million to Settle Race/National Origin and Retaliation Claims

Posted on January 15, 2010 by Christopher McKinney

Albertsons, LLC, a national grocery chain, will pay $8.9 million and furnish other relief to settle three employment discrimination lawsuits filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Oppor tunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC had charged Albertsons with race, color, and national origin discrimination and retaliation at its Aurora, Colo., distribution center. The monetary relief will be distributed among 168 former and current employees.

All three of the EEOC’s cases stemmed from incidents at the Aurora distribution center, which is being closed for unrelated reasons. The first case, EEOC v. Albertsons LLC, Civil Action No. 06-cv-01273, was filed in 2006 and alleged a pattern or practice of workplace harassment and discrimin ation based on race, color and national origin. According to the lawsuit, minority employees were repeatedly subjected to derogatory comments and graffiti. Blacks were termed “n-----s” and Hispanics termed “s---s,” among other offensive epithets.

The EEOC said the offensive graffiti included racial and ethnic slurs, depictions of lynchings, swastikas, and white supremacist and anti-immigrant statements. The graffiti in a commonly used men’s room was so offensive that several employees would relieve themselves outside the building or go home at lunchtime rather than use the restroom. Some of this graffiti remained for years until the restroom was remodeled in 2005.

The EEOC also charged that minority employees were given harder work assignments and were more frequently and severely disciplined than their white co-workers. According to the EEOC, managers were aware of, and even participated in, the harassment and discrimination.

The second lawsuit, EEOC v. Albertsons LLC, Civil Action No. 08-cv-00640, was filed in 2008 and alleged a pattern or practice of retaliation. The EEOC alleged that dozens of employees complained about the discriminatory treatment and harassment and were subsequently given the harder job assignments, were passed over for promotion and even fired as retaliation.

The third case, EEOC v. Albertsons LLC, Civil Action No. 08-cv-02424, was also filed in 2008 and alleged race discrimination on behalf of a single African American employee at the distribution center who was terminated.

 

Source: EEOC Press

Tags: , , ,

EEOC Getting $20+ Million Dollars to Reduce Case Backlog

Posted on December 15, 2009 by Christopher McKinney

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is looking at getting an extra $23 million dollars to help tackle the growing backlog of cases at the at the agency. 

According to the National Law Journal, the 2010 omnibus appropriations bill, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 10 and by the Senate on Dec. 13, would funnel those additional millions to the EEOC to help the agency get a handle on more than 70,000 unresolved discrimination complaints. 

The article reports that the resource-starved EEOC recently saw a 35% jump in its backlog, from 54,970 cases in 2007 to 73,951 last year. The agency also saw a record number of discrimination complaints in 2008 — 95,402 — which was also a nearly 20% increase from 79,896 in 2007. Nearly two-thirds involved racial or gender discrimination. 

Meanwhile, the agency has watched staffing levels shrink 25% in recent years under the last administration, from 2,850 in 2001 to 2,150 in 2008. Currently the agency is hiring 200 new investigators. 

The EEOC has always had a chronic problem with not being adequately funded.  While this new funding won't totally rectify the situation, the move should be welcomed by both employers and employees.  Regardless of outcome, it is in everyone's best interest for EEOC investigations to be resolved in as short a time frame as possible.  

 

Read the story here.

Tags: , , , , , ,

University of Phoenix Settles Retaliation Lawsuit

Posted on July 13, 2009 by Christopher McKinney

The University of Phoenix has agreed to pay a former employee $32,500 as part of a settlement of a discrimination claim that has been made public by the EEOC. The University settled the discrimination claim brought by Latrish Elaine Tarhini, who worked as enrollment counselor at the school’s Houston campus.

The EEOC and Tarhini claimed that University of Phoenix management said she would not be in line for a promotion because she made an earlier pregnancy discrimination charge against the Phoenix-based company and its parent, Apollo Group Inc. The EEOC filed suit against UOP in September 2008 in federal court, claiming the for-profit university violated retaliation statutes of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It violates federal law to discriminate against workers who previously filed discrimination claims against their employers.

The University of Phoenix is a subsidiary of Phoenix-based Apollo Group Inc. (Nasdaq: APOL). It has 397,000 students enrolled in its online and campus classes. The school has 200 campuses worldwide.
 

Tags: , , ,