Latino Employee Discrimination Claim

National origin employment discrimination violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (”EEOC”) is a federal agency which enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, including workplace discrimination based upon an employee’s national origin.  In this regard, EEOC attorneys announced in a July 13, 2009 EEOC Press Release that a property service company will pay $115,000.00 and furnish other relief to settle a national origin discrimination lawsuit in which EEOC attorneys charged that Latino employees were discriminated against when the company disciplined them for being absent from work on May 1, 2006, the day of a “May Day” immigration rally.  See, http://www.eeoc.gov/press/7-13-09.html .  According to the EEOC Press Release, the company had established a policy prohibiting its majority Latino workforce from attending the rally and three employees had either received pre-approval for their absence or had notified a supervisor in advance of their absences, none of which were related to the rally.  However, the EEOC charged that one employee had been suspended after his supervisor assumed he had missed work to attend the immigration rally while two additional former and current employees were also disciplined when the company subjected them to false assumptions based on stereotypes shaped by their national origin.  An EEOC attorney was quoted in the Press Release as saying that “The days when employers make decisions based on stereotypes and assumptions shaped by the race and national origin of their employees should be far behind us.” 

Whether employment discrimination against Latino or hispanic workers occurs in Amarillo, Lubbock, Wichita Falls or elsewhere, hispanic victims of employment discrimination may contact the EEOC and an attorney or lawyer to determine if a national origin discrimination lawsuit may ultimately be appropriate under the particular circumstances and facts of the potential Latino discrimination claim.