New York Paralegal Blog

CHICAGO – The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on 5/6/2011 that a federal judge has entered a $195,000 consent decree to resolve a national origin harassment lawsuit brought by the agency against the Hilton Lisle/Naperville Hotel in Lisle, Ill. In its lawsuit, EEOC charged that the Hilton Lisle/Naperville violated federal law by subjecting Hispanic employees in the hotel kitchen to offensive comments. Specifically, the EEOC charged that the hotel’s executive chef regularly referred to Hispanic employees as “s--cs” and “wetbacks.” National origin discrimination violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit, captioned EEOC v. Fireside West, LLC d/b/a Hilton Lisle/Naperville , No. 09 cv-5979, on Sept. 28, 2009 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. The three-year consent decree resolving the suit, a...

Lisle/Naperville Hilton Subjected Hispanics to Ethnic Slurs, Federal Agency Charges CHICAGO – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed suit Friday against Fireside West, LLC, doing business as the Hilton in Lisle/Naperville, Ill., charging that the hotel violated Title VII by subjecting its Hispanic employees to a hostile work environment. The EEOC’s complaint said that the hotel subjected Hispanic employees to frequent ethnic slurs from the hotel’s executive chef. The EEOC’s lawsuit, in U.S. District Court in Chicago (Civil Action 09-CV-05979, assigned to District Judge James B. Zagel and Magistrate Judge Maria G. Valdez), arose out of charges of discrimination filed with the EEOC by two former employees of the hotel. The EEOC’s administrative investigation which preceded the lawsuit, supervised by EEOC Chicago District Director John Rowe, revealed that the executive chef would allegedly openly refer to Hispanic employees under his supervision with derogatory term...