Monthly Archives: September 2010

Does DHL Shipping Assign Black Delivery Drivers to Black Neighborhoods?

September 25th, 2010

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today filed a race discrimination lawsuit against DHL Express, Inc. on behalf of a class of African-American employees who were given different job assignments because of their race. The EEOC received more than 20 charges of discrimination against DHL alleging that the shipping and delivery giant discriminated against black workers.
The EEOC’s administrative investigation was conducted under the supervision of Chicago District Director John Rowe, who said that the EEOC’s investigation found that DHL assigned black drivers to predominately black neighborhoods and white drivers to predominately white neighborhoods. “While this may not have been obvious to employees at first, over time, a pattern of segregation emerged,” said Rowe.
The EEOC’s administrative investigation also found that DHL assigned more difficult and dangerous work to black employees than white employees. Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
John Hendrickson, the EEOC’s regional attorney in Chicago, added, “Any employer who gives different work assignments to employees simply because of the color of their skin, sends a message to all of its employees that it is by no means colorblind. The concept of ‘separate but equal’ has long since been rejected. It has absolutely no place on the job. Everyone should understand that federal law — Title VII — expressly forbids the segregation of employees. In this case, as with all of our other cases, the EEOC is looking to ensure that all employees can work in an environment free of discrimination.”
The case, captioned EEOC v. DHL Express (USA), Inc., was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, on September 24, 2010 and has been designated Civil Action No. 10 C 6139. The government’s litigation effort will be led by EEOC Trial Attorney Aaron DeCamp and Supervisory Trial Attorney Diane Smason.
DHL is an international company with a heavy presence throughout Florida. Sarelson Law Firm has frequently counseled employees and former employees of DHL regarding equal employment opportunity laws.

Posted in Racial Discrimination | Comments Off

Man-on-Man Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Filed Against Joe Allen’s Restaurant

September 16th, 2010

Joe Allen’s is a Miami Beach landmark. (Not quite Joe’s Stone Crab famous – but famous enough). A new lawsuit alleges that a male supervisor (apparently gay but the complaint isn’t entirely clear) made unwelcome sexual comments to a male subordinate (also possibly gay but again not entirely clear). Some of the comments were overtly directed at gay people but others were more generalized (but still highly vulgar) sexual comments. The employee complained and even filed an EEOC charge but no corrective action was taken.
Same-sex sexual harassment lawsuits are on the rise and an increasing number of plaintiffs in employment actions are male. As always, the supervisor’s unwelcomed sexual comments are not, standing along, normally sufficient to bring a sexual harassment lawsuit. It is the failure of the company to take corrective action when it is made aware of the inappropriate sexual comments or hostile work environment that gets the company in trouble.
Oddly, the plaintiff in this case also filed a “negligent supervision” claim premised on the company’s failure to take corrective action. This will probably dismissed because the blog is unaware of any cause of action that would be distinct from the statutory claim under Title VII. The plaintiff also filed a claim for breach of an implied contract in fact. Aside from the fact that a contact is either implied or is in fact, but not both, Florida courts have repeatedly rejected implied contract claims when an employment relationship is at-will. This count will almost certainly be dismissed. Neither of these counts are cognizable and neither of them add anything in terms of strategy or damages. It seems silly to add unnecessary counts and only makes the plaintiff’s lawyer’s job harder by having to respond to a motion to dismiss.
Despite some technical issues raised above, the case makes for an interesting read and the blog is curious to see how this same-sex sexual harassment lawsuit plays out. The complaint is here:
Moak v Joe Allen Lawsuit
Sarelson Law Firm has represented employees and employers in various discrimination lawsuits, including representing several gay employees in HIV discrimination lawsuits and similar claims. Neither federal nor Florida law prohibits discrimination in the workplace on account of sexual orientation, but sexual harassment is one form of discrimination premised on sex that is not based on sexual orientation. (Many local ordinances, including the MIami-Dade and Broward County Codes prohibit employment discrimination based upon sexual orientation – but a violation of the county code is not the strongest lawsuit).

Posted in Retaliation, Sex Discrimination, Sexual Harassment | Comments Off

Not Breaking News: Women Lawyers Earn Less than Male Lawyers

September 14th, 2010

A recent study confirmed that female law firm partners earn less than their male law firm partner counterparts. This is not terribly surprising news, but the new study was able to show that the pay gap is not the result of performance issues. The blog doubts this study will lead to any wholesale change in “big law” but could be used to support individual claims of gender discrimination at law firms. (Of course, the flip side is that you first have to show that female partners are “employees” within the meaning of federal and state anti-discrimination statutes — a topic that has been hotly contested in several federal courts and that the blog has previously covered). The National Law Journal has a detailed article on the study here.

Posted in Sex Discrimination | Comments Off