Workplace Discrimination Lawsuit

Attorneys with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (”EEOC”) announced in an April 1, 2009 EEOC Press Release that the federal agency filed a workplace discrimination lawsuit against Accurate Insulation, LLC on behalf of a female and class of African American workers who were employed at the company’s Upper Malboro, Maryland location.  According to the EEOC Press Release, the lawsuit charges that a senior manager subjected a female worker to sexually offensive overtures, overt comments, and explicit sexual comments, and a senior manager also made racially charged statements to three African American workers by frequently referring to them as “boy” and stating that they “haven’t got their 40 acres and a mule,” referencing a proprosed governmental reparations act following slavery.  As stated in the Press Release, all four employees are African American and were employed by the company as home insulation installers.  See, http://www.eeoc.gov/press/4-01-09c.html .  In addition, the Press Release states that shortly after they filed internal complaints, the company began exclusively hiring Latino workers to replace them, and the African American employees’ job assignments and work hours were then drastically reduced.  Further, the lawsuit alleges that all four African American employees were terminated after they filed complaints of discrimination with the EEOC.  An EEOC attorney was quoted in the Press Release as saying that “Any form of discrimination in the workplace is unlawful, and workers cannot lose their jobs for reporting it.”  The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, and in Fiscal Year 2008, workplace discrimination charge filings increased 15% to an unprecedented level of 95,402.  Further information about the EEOC may be found in its website at www.eeoc.gov . 

Whether employment related discrimination occurs in Bay City, Freeport, Port Lavaca or elsewhere, victims of workplace discrimination may contact the EEOC and an attorney or lawyer to determine if an employment discrimination lawsuit may ultimately be appropriate under the particular facts and circumstances of the potential discrimination claim.