Unlawful Employment Discrimination

The U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency which enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination.  In a February 3, 2010 press release found on the internet at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/2-3-10c.cfm , EEOC attorneys announced two settlements against a hotel operator for $500,000 and signficant remedial relief in cases alleging national origin discrimination and sexual harassment.  Both lawsuits were filed in September 2007 under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In the first lawsuit, EEOC attorneys charged that non-Chinese banquet servers were rejected for hire based on their national origin when a San Gabriel Hilton severed its contract and hired Landwin Management, a hotel operator, to operate the establishment in April 2005.  The EEOC claimed that all the non-Chinese banquet servers who previously worked for the hotel at the time, many of whom were Latino, were not hired back during the turnover and were instead replaced with less qualified Chinese workers.

In the second lawsuit, EEOC attorneys charged that the Hotel subjected female employees to a sexually hostile work environment, including verbal sexual harassment by the housekeeping supervisor, who referred to the women as “whores” and “prostitutes” in addition to other offensive language.  The supervisor also allegedly reprimanded the female employees if they even spoke to men, and the operator failed to respond to the employees’ complaints of harassment.

An EEOC attorney involved in the employment discrimination lawsuit commented that “The days when employers make decisions based on stereotypes and assumptions shaped by the race or national origin of their employees should be far behind us.”  Further information about the EEOC and the laws it enforces is available at www.eeoc.gov .

Whether unlawful employment discrimination occurs in Beaumont, Conroe, Houston or elsewhere, employment discrimination victims 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 workplace discrimination claim.