Over the last few weeks, several multimillion-dollar race and national origin settlements and verdicts have hit the headlines. The recent developments—all involving cases brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)—serve as reminders to all employers of the need to train managers on preventing workplace bias and to respond promptly and effectively to employee bias complaints.
In one development, Lockheed Martin has agreed to shell out $2.5 million to settle an EEOC lawsuit charging the company with discriminating against an African-American electrician. The suit alleged that the employee was subjected to a racially hostile working environment that included threats of lynching and use of the “N-word,” and that Lockheed didn’t discipline the alleged harassers. This settlement is the largest the EEOC has ever obtained in a race suit on behalf of an individual.
In another case, a federal judge has approved a $6.2 settlement for black and Hispanic sheet metal workers who, in an EEOC-filed suit, accused their union, Local 28 of the Sheet Metal Workers, of failing to provide them with equal employment opportunities and paying them less based on their race and national origin. The lawsuit dragged on for 37 years.
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And Ford Motor Co., along with two related companies and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, will pay $1.2 million to resolve another EEOC lawsuit brought on behalf of a class of 700 African-American employees. The agency had charged that a written test used to determine the eligibility of hourly employees for a skilled trades apprenticeship program had a disproportionately negative impact on African-Americans. This suit is a successor case to an earlier EEOC lawsuit against Ford and the UAW, which was settled for $8.5 million in 2005, and covers additional people disadvantaged by the test in question who were not covered in that settlement.
Finally, the EEOC recently reached a $427,000 discrimination settlement with auto manufacturer Supreme Corp. The agency charged that seven employees at a company facility in Oregon were harassed and discriminated against because of their Mexican national origin.
Additional Resources:
EEOC Race and Color Discrimination Information
EEOC National Origin Discrimination Information