In a news release at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/5-24-10.cfm , the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (”EEOC”) announced that a Missouri construction company has settled a race harassment lawsuit filed by EEOC attorneys.  According to the May 24, 2010 news release, EEOC attorneys charged in the employment discrimination lawsuit that the company violated federal law by racially harassing three African American construction workers and then taking reprisals against them when one complained.  More specifically, EEOC attorneys asserted that the three black construction workers were subjected to unlawful racial harassment which included the use of racially charged comments and the display of a noose. 

Racial harassment and retaliation for complaining about it violate Title VII of the Civil rights Act of 1964, and the EEOC is a federal agency which enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination.  In this regard, EEOC attorneys filed the discrimination lawsuit after the agency first attempted to reach a voluntary pre-litigation settlement.  Further information about the EEOC and the federal laws it enforces is available at www.eeoc.gov .

Whether unlawful workplace racial harassment and display of nooses occurs in Beaumont, Conroe, Port Arthur or elsewhere, victims of employment related race harassment may contact the EEOC and an attorney to determine if a racial discrimination lawsuit is ultimately appropriate under the particular facts and circumstances of the potential discrimination claim.

Attorneys with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (”EEOC”) announced settlement of a discrimination retaliation lawsuit filed in Houston, Texas.  According to the EEOC news release at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/5-25-10.cfm , two Dallas/Fort Worth area transportation brokerage companies will pay $50,000 and provide additional remedial relief to settle a discrimination lawsuit in which EEOC attorneys charged that the employer unlawfully retaliated against an employee by firing him because the employee had complained about workplace comments being made by two coworkers at a Sugarland, Texas facility where they worked.  More specifically, the EEOC claimed in the Houston retaliation lawsuit that the employee complained to the human resources manager about persistent inappropriate jokes about Mormons, as well as workplace comments allegedly disparaging a pregnant female coworker, women in general, and an African American.  As stated in the news release, the human resources manager reported the employee’s complaints to the general manager of the facility and the employee was fired within less than 72 hours.

The EEOC is a federal agency which enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color and sex, including sexual harassment, as well as retaliation for complaining about discrimination.  In this regard, EEOC attorneys filed the employment discrimination lawsuit in Houston after the agency first attempted to reach a voluntary settlement.  An EEOC attorney quoted in the news release stated, in part, that “No one should lose his job for alerting human resources to inappropriate workplace behavior.”  Further information about the EEOC and the federal laws it enforces is available at www.eeoc.gov . 

Whether unlawful workplace discrimination and retaliation occurs in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Sugarland or elsewhere, victims of employment discrimination may contact the EEOC and an attorney to determine if a discrimination retaliation lawsuit is ultimately appropriate under the particular circumstances and facts of the potential discrimination claim.

In a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by attorneys with the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (”EEOC”), the federal agency charges that an 18-year-old restaurant server was forced to quit her job because of a boss’s sexual touching and advances.  According to the EEOC news release posted at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/5-20-10.cfm , Cactus Grill, Inc. violated federal law when it allegedly allowed a manager to sexually harass the server at its restaurant in Leawood, Kansas.  More specifically, EEOC attorneys charge in the sexual harassment lawsuit that an assistant manager at the restaurant asked the server for sex, touched her, and made unwelcome sexual advances toward her.  As further claimed by the EEOC, the harassment became so intolerable that the server was forced to quit her job, amounting to an unlawful constructive discharge. 

The EEOC is a federal agency which enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, including sexual harassment.  In this regard, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects workers from discrimination based on gender, including sexual harassment.  Further information about the EEOC and the laws it enforces is available at www.eeoc.gov .

Attorneys with the United States Department of Justice announced in a May 13, 2010 news release posted at http://www.justice.gov that a federal jury in Lexington, Kentucky returned seven guilty verdicts against two former corrections officers with the Lexington-Fayette County Urban Detention Center (”FCUDC”).  According to the Department of Justice (”DOJ”) news release, the defendants were convicted for conspiring to abuse arrestees at the FCUDC, as well as for actually abusing arrestees and for obstructing justice by lying about the abuse.  As further stated in the news release, evidence at trial established that the defendants conspired with each other and with other officers who worked on their shift at the jail to physically assault inmates and to write false reports to cover it up.  Before trial began, three co-defendants, all former employees of the jail, pleaded guilty to federal charges connected to this case.

The U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (”EEOC”) announced in an April 26, 2010 news release at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/4-26-10.cfm that the Maryland Classified Employees Association (MCEA) union will pay $80,000 to settle a retaliation discrimination lawsuit brought by EEOC attorneys on behalf of a fired MCEA employee.  According to the news release, EEOC attorneys charged in the retaliation discrimination lawsuit that the MCEA fired the employee for her perceived involvement in an EEOC investigation of her employer’s alleged unlawful employment practices, her opposition to practices she believed were discriminatory and her association with another MCEA employee who had filed a charge of discrimination.  In addition, the EEOC alleged that MCEA denied a promotion to the fired employee and subjected her to discriminatory terms and conditions of employment because she filed a discrimination charge with the EEOC against MCEA.

The EEOC is a federal agency which enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, and retaliation against an employee for protesting employment discrimination or participating in a discrimination charge investigation violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  In this regard, EEOC attorneys filed the retaliation discrimination lawsuit after the EEOC first attempted to reach a voluntary pre-litigation settlement. 

The most frequently filed charges with the EEOC in Fiscal Year 2009 were charges of discrimination based on race, retaliation and sex-based discrimination.  Further information about the EEOC and the federal laws it enforces is available at www.eeoc.gov .

In May 2010 , the United States Department of Justice (”DOJ”) issued three news releases describing criminal proceedings DOJ attorneys charge were motivated by race.  A May 12th news release posted by the DOJ at http://www.justice.gov states that a 23-year-old man has been indicted by a federal grand jury for participating in a civil rights conspiracy in connection with an October 2008 cross-burning near the home of an interracial racial couple in Athens, Louisiana.  In that case, a co-conspirator was convicted this past January for conspiring to burn a cross, using fire to commit a federal felony and obstruction of justice charges stemming from this same cross-burning.  A May 13th DOJ news release states that a federal grand jury in the District of Massachusetts has charged two men in a three-count superseding indictment in relation to the arson of a church.  According to that news release, the superseding indictment alleges that in the early morning of November 5, 2008, within hours of Barack Obama being elected President of the United States, the two men agreed to burn and succeeded in burning the Macedonia Church of God in Christ, a predominately African American church.  In a May 17th DOJ news release, DOJ attorneys announced that a white supremacist pleaded guilty to using the Postal Service to send a threatening communication to the president of the Lima, Ohio chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.  As stated in the news release, the white supremacist admits mailing a hangman’s noose in order to convey a threat to injure the victim because the victim advocated publicly for better police services for African Americans in Lima, Ohio.  A Civil Rights Division attorney quoted in the news release stated, in part, that “A noose is an unmistakable symbol of hate in our nation, and it was used in this case to intimidate an individual exercising his right to speak out and advocate on behalf of others.”

With respect to the indictments, the DOJ cautioned in the news releases that details in an indictment are allegations and defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.  Further information about the DOJ and the laws it enforces is available in the DOJ’s website at www.doj.gov .

Attorneys with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (”EEOC”) announced in a news release at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/4-22-10.cfm that a Houston area construction company will pay $122,500 and provide additional remedial relief to resolve an employment discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of fourteen company employees.  According to the April 22, 2010 news release, EEOC attorneys charged in the lawsuit that a supervisor of an employee of Islamic faith and East Indian descent referred to the employee as “terrorist,” “Taliban,” “Osama,” and “Al-Qaeda.”  The EEOC alleged further that the same supervisor, as well as others in company management, regularly referred to African Americans as “n—–s” and to Hispanics as “f—–g Mexicans.”  An EEOC attorney quoted in the news release stated, in part, that “Employees have an absolute right to be free from discriminatory harassment in the workplace.”

In this regard, the EEOC is a federal agency which enforces federal laws that prohibit employment discrimination, and EEOC attorneys filed the race, religious and national origin discrimination lawsuit in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas.  Further information about the EEOC and the laws it enforces is available in the agency’s website at www.eeoc.gov . 

Whether employment related harassment based on race, religion or national origin discrimination occurs in Houston or elsewhere, victims of discriminatory workplace practices may contact the EEOC and an attorney to determine if an employment discrimination lawsuit is ultimately appropriate under the particular facts and circumstances of the potential unlawful harassment claim.

In a May 3, 2010 news release, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/5-3-10.cfm that a Meridian, Mississippi nursing home will pay $40,000 and furnish other relief to settle an age and race discrimination lawsuit filed by EEOC attorneys on behalf of a 53-year-old black female who claimed she was denied a social worker position because of her age and race.  According to the news release, EEOC attorneys charged in the discrimination lawsuit that the company refused to consider her for the position even though she had 27-plus years experience as a social worker.  Instead, the EEOC said, a less qualified 34-year-old white female was the only candidate interviewed and then hired. 

The EEOC is a federal agency which enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, including age and race discrimination.  The EEOC’s Birmingham District Office is responsible for processing charges of discrimination, administrative enforcement, and the conduct of agency litigation in Alabama, Mississippi, and Northern Florida, with Area Offices in Jackson, Mississippi and Mobile, Alabama.  In this regard, EEOC attorneys filed the lawsuit in the Southern District of Mississippi after first attempting to reach a voluntary pre-litigation settlement.  Further information about the EEOC and the federal laws it enforces is avaliable at www.eeoc.gov .   

Whether employment discrimination occurs in Mississippi or elsewhere, victims of workplace age and race discrimination or harassment may contact the EEOC and an attorney to determine if an employment discrimination lawsuit is ultimately appropriate under the particular facts and circumstances of the potential discrimination claim.

In an April 20, 2010 news release at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/4-20-10.cfm , the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that an insurance company will pay $30,000.00 and furnish other relief to settle an unlawful retaliation lawsuit EEOC attorneys filed on behalf of a company employee.  According to the news release, EEOC attorneys alleged in the retaliation lawsuit that the company demoted a male employee from associate sales manager to the position of sales associate in retaliation for reporting a complaint of sexual harassment he had received from an employee he supervised.  In addition, the retaliation lawsuit charged that the employee was demoted after he informed the alleged harasser, who was his supervisor, that he had reported the complaint.

Such alleged retaliation for reporting a sexual harassment complaint violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  In this regard, the EEOC is a federal agency which enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, including retaliation for complaining about it.  In this case, EEOC attorneys filed the retaliation lawsuit after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement.  Further information about the EEOC and the laws it enforces is available at www.eeoc.gov .