Discrimination in the Workplace

Story first appeared in The Detroit Free Press.

A local worker said he was outraged when his boss at Noble Metal Processing in Warren used the N-word to refer to a black co-worker.  So the worker who is white, complained: to his boss, to his union and to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

And then he got fired.

The 54 year old Eastpointe resident states that he was brought up to believe that everyone should be treated equally.  But unfortunately he is among a growing number of U.S. workers to turn to the EEOC to combat job discrimination, according to Charleston Labor and Employment Lawyers. The agency received a record 99,947 complaints last year -- a 20.7% increase since 2007. It also obtained $513.6 million in compensation and other benefits for workers.

In 2008, the EEOC sued Noble in federal court, accusing it of repeatedly denying promotional opportunities to nonwhites and of retaliating against employees who spoke out against the discrimination.  The company denied the charges, but settled out of court in 2010, paying $190,000 to wronged employees and several minority workers.

The EEOC would have required the firm to launch an anti-discrimination training program, but it went out of business.

The worker said that he has struggled since the firing to find steady work, but has no regrets.

A minority employee said the first hint of trouble on his job at a Macomb County bridge painting company came when his foreman handed out new work gloves to white crew members, but told he and another black employee to fix their old ones with duct tape.  The discriminated employee said that it was humiliating, and all the white workers were laughing at them.  He later overheard the foreman, who is white, refer to him using the N-word.

The Port Huron resident said he complained to an owner, who pledged to make things right. But when the next painting season rolled around in 2008, he didn't get called back to work.  He complained to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Detroit, which sued the company last year in federal court.

The Detroit office, which covers Michigan and 15 counties in northwestern Ohio, received nearly 3,000 complaints during each of the last two years -- nearly double the number from 2007 -- making it the eighth busiest EEOC field office in the country. Last year it obtained $8.8 million for people who filed claims.

The EEOC accused Atsalis Bros. Painting of Warren of retaliating against minority workers for complaining about poor treatment by firing or refusing to rehire them.

In March, the company settled out of court without admitting wrongdoing. It agreed to pay the disenfranchised worker $65,000, adopt new procedures for handling discrimination complaints and provide more training for its supervisory staff.

Atsalis maintain that they investigated the complaint and thought it had been resolved to his satisfaction. The company didn't call him back to work because of the recession and because the worker didn't want to work on distant painting projects -- which he said was untrue.  Atsalis also offered to rehire him and assign him to a new foreman. But that was four years later and after he already had found a new job.

A local EEOC lawyer said Atsalis shot the messenger instead of dealing with the issue.  Too often, companies turn a discrimination problem into a major retaliation case.

The agency received a record 99,947 complaints during the 2011 fiscal year ending Sept. 30. One-third of the complaints involved race discrimination or retaliation.

Experts attributed the deluge of complaints to the recession, which cost millions of Americans their jobs, causing many to suspect they were victimized and call for Employment Lawyers to champion their case.

The EEOC was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination based on race, sex, color, religion and national origin. Congress later added more categories: disability, pregnancy, age (for people 40 and older), unequal pay, genetic information and retaliation.

The EEOC has three core missions: to educate employers, workers and the public about job discrimination; to investigate and mediate complaints, and, as a last resort, to sue.

The head of the Detroit field office, said that the agency prefers to resolve complaints confidentially through mediation and conciliation, which typically takes 30 days to two years.  She said that most employers prefer it that way to avoid press releases.

Because the EEOC works mostly behind closed doors, the public rarely hears about the worst cases or understands the extent of the problem. Until the EEOC shows up, many employers don't know they are at risk.  The agency usually can help 20%-25% of the people who seek help.

Plaintiff's lawyers say the EEOC suffers from chronic understaffing, takes too long to investigate and often obtains modest results for aggrieved workers who could do better in federal court with their own lawyer.

The EEOC has too much on its plate and because of that, it's not as effective as it could be.  Federal law should be amended so the victims of discrimination can sue in federal court without first going to the EEOC.

Defense lawyers complain that the agency often sees discrimination where none exists to justify its existence, drags companies through costly litigation on the basis of slipshod investigations and confounds employers with ever-shifting priorities.  Practiced Labor and Employment Lawyers disagree.

EEOC practices differ from region to region and sometimes within the same office, making it difficult for employers to know where they stand on employment issues.  He cited last year's decision by a federal judge in Detroit who ordered the EEOC to pay an Ohio uniform company more than $2.6 million in legal fees and costs for needlessly prolonging an 11-year gender discrimination case.

The judge said the EEOC engaged in a reckless sue first, ask questions later strategy.  The EEOC is appealing the decision, one of the largest fee judgments against the agency.

A noted Royal Oak employment lawyer agreed that the EEOC is the go-to agency for aggrieved workers who can't find a private lawyer to take their case.   In the right case, the EEOC can be very effective.  Especially in instances where an employee has been wrongly passed over for promotion or can't get the company to deal with a harassment complaint.

Going to the EEOC has other benefits: The person filing the claim won't pay attorney fees, and the agency will pursue cases that private lawyers won't take.

Pinnacle Airlines, a Memphis, Tenn.-based airline that flies out of Detroit Metro Airport, fired a Westland resident from her clerical job in 2009 because it said she was walking too slowly on the job because of arthritis. The EEOC sued the airline under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Though Pinnacle denied the charges, it agreed in 2010 to pay her $20,000, change its disability discrimination policy and revamp training.

For more law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.