Houston Employment Discrimination Lawsuit

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.