New York Paralegal Blog

SAN FRANCISCO — A major pharmacy chain has agreed to pay $55,000 and to implement preventive training to settle a federal lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging race and gender discrimination and retaliation, the agency announced today. The EEOC had sued on behalf of an African-American female buyer who had been employed at Longs Drugs, which was later bought by CVS Caremark. The EEOC’s suit asserted that Marcia Guaman was treated by Longs Drugs very differently from colleagues who were not black or female. For example, Guaman received verbal and written warnings for her performance numbers, while white female co-workers with lower scores did not face any disciplinary action. Also, Guaman’s requests for vacation days were denied, even though she asked prior to white co-workers who were granted vacation for the same dates, according to the EEOC. She was discharged from her position a few months after she raised the differential treatment ...

JONESBORO, Ark. – A federal judge has ordered an Osceola, Ark., nursing home company to comply with a subpoena issued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in the agency’s subpoena enforcement action against the company, the EEOC announced today. The judge also ordered sanctions against the company for failing to comply with the subpoena. After an evidentiary hearing held March 9, U.S. District Judge D.P. Marshall ordered that Osceola Nursing Home, LLP, the former owner of nursing home facilities in eastern Arkansas, pay a sanction of $2,500 to the EEOC and make a good-faith effort to locate documents responsive to the subpoena by reviewing all files left at the nursing home facility, including those housed in an off-site storage facility. Judge Marshall ordered Osceola Nursing Home to certify compliance within 30 days. The judge ruled that Osceola Nursing Home’s unresponsive conduct warranted sanctions under “the Court’s inherent authority to protect and promote...

CPT Fired Man for Supporting Women Fighting Harassment, Federal Agency Charged SAN FRANCISCO — A Central Valley mental health rehabilitation center has agreed to provide $25,000 and other relief to settle a federal lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC had charged that Delhi, Calif.-based California Psychiatric Transitions, Inc. (CPT) fired a male employee in retaliation for helping his female co-workers to oppose sexual harassment at the center. This is the second lawsuit brought by the EEOC against the center. The first, which alleged sexual harassment, settled last year for $145,000 on behalf of nine female employees.

Construction Company Fired Black Employee Because He Complained About Racial Harassment, Federal Agency Charged BECKLEY, W.V. – A South Point, Ohio-based construction company condoned egregious racial harassment and illegally fired an employee who complained about the abusive treatment, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it announced on 07/19/2010. The EEOC charges in its lawsuit that Mike Enyart & Sons, Inc. subjected Mareo R. Allen, who is African-American, to a hostile work environment based on his race, when he worked for the company on a sewer line installation project in White Sulphur Springs, W.V. Co-workers and a foreman repeatedly used racially offensive slurs and epithets to Allen and other black persons, including “n----r,” “black boy” “and colored boy,” the EEOC said in its lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of West Virginia, Civil Action No. 5:10-cv-0921. The EEOC alleges that the harassment also included...

Teen-aged Female Carhops Were Routinely Abused by Male Managers, Federal Agency Charged HOUSTON – Two Sonic Drive-In franchises in the Kingwood-Humble area with common ownership and management will pay $55,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC had charged that S.D.I. of Kingwood, doing business as the Kingwood Sonic Drive-In, and S.D.I. of Lee Rd., doing business as the Lee Road Sonic Drive-In, violated federal law by routinely subjecting teenaged female employees to abuse by a manager and others, including threatening one young worker with a knife. The EEOC’s suit said that the franchises’ primary owner promoted a young, unqualified family member to consecutively higher management positions within the restaurants and allowed him to use his position of power to sexually harass the teens starting in 2006. The EEOC also contended that this manager permitted and encou...

Federal Agency Charged Manager Unlawfully Forced Employees to Engage in Prayer Ceremonies Regardless of Their Religious Beliefs PHOENIX -- Lodging Enterprises LLC of Arizona, which does business as Oak Tree Inn in Yuma, will pay $75,000 and furnish other relief to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC’s suit charged that Oak Tree Inn threatened employees with reprisals of reducing their hours or otherwise forced them to engage in a particular religious prayer ceremony in spite of their personal different religious views. The defendant, through its general manager, Carlos Paredes, derided certain religious beliefs of some of the employees, the EEOC said. He also attempted to impose his personal religious beliefs on employees. The unlawful discrimination created a hostile work environment and denied employees reasonable accommodation for their religious beliefs.

MINNEAPOLIS – Judge Richard Kyle of U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota issued an order on June 2 denying in part the motion of Hibbing Taconite Company for summary judgment in a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. In its lawsuit, EEOC v. Hibbing Taconite Company, Civ. No. 09-729 (RHK/RLE), originally filed March 31, 2009, the EEOC charged that Hibbing Taconite Company discriminated against James Edstrom, who is deaf, when it denied him employment at its mine. The EEOC contends that Hibbing Taconite rejected Edstrom, who formerly worked for LTV Mining, because of his hearing impairment, in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

Telecommunications Giant Fired Employee Because He Complained About Race Bias, Federal Agency Says PITTSBURGH – AT&T (formerly Cingular Wireless), a Fortune 500 telecommunications company, will pay $75,000 to settle a federal race discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced(08/03/09) today. The EEOC charged that John T. Davidson, an African American retail sales consultant at AT&T’s Penn Place store in Monroeville, Pa., applied for several managerial positions with AT&T Mobility, formerly Cingular Wireless, but was not selected. According to the lawsuit, the company promoted non-black employees and applicants to managerial positions during that time period, but refused to promote Davidson because of his race. The EEOC further contended that the company repeatedly disciplined Davidson unfairly, and ultimately terminated him, in retaliation for his exercising his federally protected right to fil...

EEOC Prevails in Jury Verdict and Subsequent Appeal for Two Customer Service Technicians Fired for Attending Jehovah’s Witness Convention JONESBORO, Ark. – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced that a Satisfaction of Judgment was entered in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, Jonesboro Division, in a religious discrimination lawsuit brought by the federal agency against communications giant AT&T, Inc. on behalf of two male customer service technicians who were suspended and fired for attending a Jehovah’s Witnesses Convention. AT&T paid a total of $1,307,597 pursuant to the judgments entered in the case. In October 2007, a jury of nine women and three men awarded the two former employees, Jose Gonzalez and Glenn Owen (brothers-in-law), $296,000 in back pay and $460,000 in compensatory damages under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. During the four-day trial, the jury heard evidence that both men had submitted written ...

EEOC Settles Suit Against San Antonio Restaurant on Behalf of Female Victims, Including Teen, Subjected to Sexual Touching, Comments, Gestures, and Requests for Sexual Favors SAN ANTONIO – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced the settlement of a sex discrimination lawsuit against Luby’s Restaurants Limited Partnership, doing business as Luby’s San Antonio #19 (Luby’s), for $135,000 and significant remedial relief on behalf of a class of female workers who were subjected to a pervasive sexually hostile work environment for years. Houston-based Luby’s operates 128 restaurants in five states with several locations in San Antonio and throughout Texas. The EEOC’s suit (Civil Action No. SA-08-CA-0794-FB), filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division, charged Luby’s with subjecting female employees, including a teenager, to a sexually hostile work environment at its Floyd Curl Ave., San Antonio location. Specifical...

A popular Hickory Hills, Ill., banquet facility and country club will pay up to $690,000 to settle two lawsuits, charging sex and race discrimination and retaliation, brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. Federal District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer has entered a consent decree resolving the two lawsuits against Chateau Del Mar, Inc. and Hickory Properties, Inc., known as Hickory Hills Country Club. Under the decree, the defendants are required pay $590,000, including attorney's fees, to a class of women who endured a sexually hostile work environment and retaliation, and, in addition, up to another $100,000 to African American applicants who were denied hire because of their race. In the government's first suit, filed on March 25, 2008 under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the EEOC alleged that the principal and manager of the facility sexually harassed a class of women employees over a period of years and refuse...

A Molalla, Ore., nursery violated federal law when it allowed female employees to be severely sexually harassed and retaliated against the women and male co-workers after they reported the harassment, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it filed today. This is the agency’s third such case against Oregon agricultural employers. Last October, the EEOC filed lawsuits against Scheimer Farms of Nyassa, Ore., and against Wilcox Farms, Inc., and Wilcox Dairy Farms Group in Aurora, Ore. The EEOC’s suit charges that sexual harassment and retaliation occurred at the Molalla, Ore., facility of Willamette Tree Wholesale, which operates 140 acres of retail nursery farmland, including a garden supply store and business office. According to the federal agency’s investigation, one worker, a 38-year-old Latina, was taken to remote areas of the farm by the company foreman and raped repeatedly over several months. In addition to threatening her with termination an...

NEW YORK – The New York State Department of Correctional Services will pay nearly $1 million to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the two offices announced today. The EEOC and the United States had charged the Corrections Department with violating federal law by providing inferior benefits to female employees on maternity leave. The EEOC suit, filed under the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (Case No. 07-CV-2587 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York), charged that the Corrections Department gave male employees with work-related injuries up to six months of paid workers’ compensation leave. Female employees could be granted the same leave, but pregnant employees on such leave were involuntarily switched to maternity leave at or around the time they gave birth. The Corrections Department’s maternity leave policy requires that women first use their a...