Consent Decree Entered for Racial Discrimination Suit

A consent decree for $11 million has been sent into the federal court, ultimately ending a lawsuit that was first filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The lawsuit was first filed by the EEOC with claims and allegations made against a transportation company, stating that the company was racially discriminative and also harassed people of a certain race as well. The decree has been approved by Judge Susan E. Cox.

When the lawsuit was first filed by the EEOC, they claimed that a particular transportation company, Yellow Transportation Incorporation, made the working environment uncomfortable and particularly hostile against African Americans who were working for the company. If the case went on to trial, the EEOC had planned to present plenty of evidence that proves Black employees had to deal with hostile conditions in the workplace. In fact, there were several different incidents in which racial comments and cartoons were displayed in the workplace. The EEOC also had evidence that Black employees were disciplined in the workplace more often than white employees. These employees also typically had to deal with challenging assignments and tasks that were more difficult than other tasks. Over the span of several years, Black employees made many complaints about the conditions they were dealing with but the company never corrected the issues at hand.

With the consent decree in place, victims of the discrimination will receive $11 million between them all. One of the facilities, the Chicago Ridge, has already closed down and has been closed for three years now. However, the Chicago Heights facility is still in full operation and there are several African American employees who are working in the facility. The decree will help over 300 African American to receive compensation for the discrimination that they had to deal with. A number of these individuals worked in different positions for the company, ranging from janitors to clerical staff and even dockworkers. The General Counsel for the EEOC, David Lopez, says that the 50^th anniversary for the Civil Rights Act is steadily approaching and that even so, cases like these prove that even though so many decades have passed, there is still work that needs to be done. The EEOC has managed to help companies come along way over the past few decades but there are still companies that are being discriminatory and the EEOC is working hard to crackdown on these companies to ensure that all employees are treated fairly and are not discriminated against based on their race, gender, sexual preference or anything of that nature.