$4.3 million to awarded to Hispanic workers in EEOC lawsuit
A New York judge has given final approval to a sweeping consent decree between the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and B & H Foto and Electronics Corp. (B & H). The decree resolves a national origin discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC on behalf of 149 Hispanic warehouse workers at one of the largest retail sellers of photographic, computer and electronic equipment in New York who are to pay $4.3m in damages.
The EEOC’s lawsuit alleged that B & H paid Hispanics in its warehouses in Manhattan and Brooklyn less than non-Hispanic workers and failed to promote them or provide health benefits because of their national origin. Under the court-approved consent decree, B & H agreed to cooperate with the EEOC in a claims process to distribute $4.3 million in monetary relief to 149 employees who suffered a detriment because of their employer’s discriminatory acts.
In addition to the multi-million dollar settlement fund, the consent decree contains injunctive relief requiring B & H to equalize the wages of Hispanic employees to their non-Hispanic coworkers, conduct employer training, adopt an anti-discrimination policy, post EEOC notices, report to the EEOC, and to be monitored by the EEOC for the following five years.
In the US, national origin discrimination means treating someone less favourably because he or she comes from a particular place, because of his or her ethnicity or accent, or because it is believed that he or she has a particular ethnic background. National origin discrimination also means treating someone less favourably at work because of marriage or other association with someone who is of a particular nationality.
In 2008, the EEOC received a record 10,601 national origin discrimination charge filings nationwide, an increase of 13% from the prior year and up 50% from about 7,000 charge filings a decade ago.
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