Employment Discrimination: Race/Ethnicity/Color/National Origin/Religion Essay

Introduction

Race discrimination is “employment discrimination against a person because of his or her race, which includes African Americans, Asians, Caucasians, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders” (Cheeseman 22). Color discrimination is “employment discrimination against a person because of his or her color, for example, when a white skin person discriminates a dark skin person ” (Cheeseman 23).

National origin discrimination is “employment discrimination against a person because of his or her heritage, cultural characteristics, or the country of the person’s ancestor” (Cheeseman 23). Religion discrimination is “discrimination against a person solely because of his or her religion or religion practices” (Cheeseman 23).

The following cases pertain to the various discriminations mentioned above.

Jury Grants PBSO Sergeant $262,000 in Segregation Case

A jury ruled in favor of Sergeant Beverly Ellis by awarding her $262, 000 after proving that Palm Beach County Sheriff discriminated against her in terms of the race. The suit, initiated in 2008 was not the first case when Ellis had raised the issue of discrimination. In the year 2001, Ellis reported about her supervisor to the department of discrimination, however, it brought no fruit, thus forcing Ellis to report the matter to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Segregation allegation against Bus System thrown out

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission threw out a discrimination allegation brought by a former staff of Lakeland Area Mass Transit, also known as Citrus Connection. Rita Wages filed the complaint on January 19, 2012 after her dismissal in December 2011. She had served the company for three years. When complaining, Wages underlined the fact that she was fired from her work place as a result of “violating federal health information privacy laws at the time she was on medical leave” (White)

Further, she said that a junior staff harassed and put her under stress by humiliating her in terms of her age, gender, religion as well as race. She also claimed that Lakeland Mayor had encouraged a Ledger to print falsehoods about her in an article dated back to March 2011; it however, resulted in the fact that the former executive director, Danny Ours, started to displayed favoritism towards Wages.

Tom Philips, Citrus Connection’s executive director said that she had to be fired because of reorganizations due to some minimizations in the budget of the organization. Wages was advised to file a petition with the federal or state court within 90 days, which she did not though.

West Point Discrimination Suit Settled

A federal race discrimination lawsuit was settled on a day when there was the jury’s seating. Four police officers filed the lawsuit based on racial discrimination. The Board of Selectmen and the four officers came to terms, which were confidential though the two parties would share the cost of the jury.

The four were former Captain Romelle Matthews, officers Tim Campbell, Jerem Dubois and Jessie Anderson. Their attorney, Jim Waide of Tupelo, was sacked; the rest supported him as well since their attitude towards former Chief Steve Bingham was loyal, who lost his job soon after the majority board assumed office. The decision made by court consisted in blaming Matthews of his official complaint to EEOC, and in the fact that Campbell and Dubois could not be helped and promoted, as they were whites.

Kearney says she experienced constant at NCAA

In a lawsuit filed with federal and state agencies, a former Longhorn women’s track coach Beverly Kearney, said she had gone through a very hostile job environment for more than a decade and claimed that the Texas’ Athletic Department was against her based because of her race and gender. She also said that she had been mistreated by the school for talking against discrimination. The complaint was filed with the Texas Workforce Commission and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Kearney resigned knowing that she would be sacked soon for the incorrect behavior with one of her athletes in the year 2002. The unfavorable work environment included insubordination by administrative assistants and failure to receive salary increment as scheduled.

Property: Suit Claims Discrimination

A supervisor with the Civilian Complaint Review Board accused a top official at the agency of racial discrimination that she claimed resulted in the supervisor being passed over for a promotion in favor of a white male colleague, according to a lawsuit filed in the federal court in Manhattan.

Winsome Thelwell alleged that a former CCRB deputy executive director of investigations, Laura Edidin, displayed her as an angry black woman and tried to create an image that Ms. Thelwell was not a competent manager. It further reveals Ms. Thelwell had a clear work record, and had steadily received promotions under former executive directors. Lastly, the lawsuit claims that Ms. Edidin created a position to elevate a white man with less experience than Ms. Thelwell. The man succeeded Ms. Edidin in August 2012.

Howard Police Officer Sues Department, Claims Racial Discrimination

On December 6, 2012, a woman at Howard County Police officer took the department to court and her senor for segregation based on race in the U.S. District Court. Pfc. Lisa Burgess, of Gwynn Oak in Baltimore County, initiated the civilian lawsuit against her senior, Sgt. Jennifer Reidy-Hall, as well the department.

The woman was blamed for performing poor since the beginning of October 2010. Burgess, who is still working, although not under the supervision of Reidy-Hall’s command, wants to get $400,000 for the damages received undergoing such tortures.

When expressing her dissatisfaction, Burgess, who said she was the only black officer in her squad, claimed she was not given her due pay raises because Reidy-Hall wrote “false, misleading and exaggerated” statements in her employee performance evaluations (Rankin).

The lawsuit comes after the U.S. Equal Employment and Opportunities Commission (EOCC) closed its file on the charge. The EOCC accepted the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights results that indicated there was no possible cause of allegations of segregation.

As per the findings, 103 of the 447 officers serving in Howard County Police are minorities. Sixty-seven of those 103 are black, 27 sworn supervisors, and rank of corporal and beyond are rated as minorities (The Baltimore Sun)

Kennesaw triumphs in provoking email lawsuit

The city of Kennesaw triumphed in a claim initiated by four white employees who alleged that they were unfairly punished due to inappropriate emails. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta “maintained a lower-court judge’s ruling to throw out the case initiated in 2010” (Rankin).

The court discovered that the white plaintiffs did not avail enough evidence of segregation and failed to prove that similarly located African-American and Hispanic staff got better treatment. The four employees were some of the over twenty city staff discovered to have gone against a policy, regarding email accounts being used for offensive goals, like racial attacks.

In 2009, two African-Americans’ government workers and a former government staff born in Korea had taken the city to court over racial attacks. “Their lawsuit alleged that city email accounts were being used to send racially offensive messages” (Rankin). The case agreed for $1.8 million.

Later, a lawsuit was initiated and it was discovered that 23 staff went against the email policy over five times. There were 20 whites, 2 blacks and a Hispanic. All of them got or were set to get discipline, but one of the two black and the Hispanic was away on medical leave at that time and were not at work, as the 11th Circuit ruling said. Out of the 20 people of the staff, four initiated a lawsuit, citing unfair treatment.

The court decided it was proper for Kennesaw to establish its mail policy and that the city’s scrutiny was neutral regarding race as there was no glaring correlation between the race segregation suit initiated in 2009 and the punishment the four city staff applied.

Conference Set In Reinhart Race Suit

A teleconference was scheduled to determine deadlines in the federal lawsuit between Reinhart FoodService and a former employee, who claims he was fired from the company’s Coal Township facility in 2010 for his efforts to stop racial discrimination and a hostile work environment.

Ramon Torres, whose parents came from Dominican Republic, alleges his fellow staff and seniors occasionally applied ethnic sentiments against blacks and Hispanics for the five years of service as a driver’s assistant for the period between September 2005 and March 2010.

Torres alleges he was set to occasional moments of unfair handling and was also prevented from machinery and extra salary since he taught drivers how to maneuver routes, based on his Hispanic origin. He claims he was threatened with dire consequences should he give out information to the company offices. After he had reported to the seniors, the firm’s ethics hotline and corporate department, he was verbally offended and then sacked for fake reasons.

Works Cited

Cheeseman R. Henry. Contemporary Business and Online Commerce Law (7th Edition). London, Princess Hall, 2011. Print.

Rankin Bill, “Kennesaw prevails in offensive email case”, Ajc.com. 2013 Web.

The Baltimore Sun. Howard Police Officer charges sues Departments, Charges, Racial Discrimination, 2013. Web.

White Gary. “Discrimination Claim against Bus System Dismissed”. The Ledger.com. 2013. Web.