Cases of employees filing charges against employers on the basis of gender and racial discrimination are not new in the United States. Title VII of the United States constitution has provided legal protection for employees who may victims of gender, age, ethnic, and racial discriminations in the country. Title VII is a federal statute that bars employers from carrying out any form of discrimination against employee (Shanon & Hunter, 2020). Despite the fact that dozens of cases are filed every year, only a few have successfully been settled in favor of complainants. Famous companies such as Amazon, Coca-Cola, and Nike have spent years in corridors of courtrooms trying to evade justice. This paper discusses two successful bias lawsuits that have been settled in favor of complainants and the similarities in both cases.
Bias Lawsuit against Cerner
This case involved black and Asian employees who were discriminated against by Cerner, a company that operates in Texas. According to Moreno (2022), the company discriminated against the job applicants based on their race and ethnic backgrounds, which is against the federal statute outlined in title VII of the federal law. Cerner is among the leading medical records providers in the US, and it was acquired by Oracle in June 2022.
The allegation was filed by the Department of Labor’s office in 2020, after the evidence indicated a shortfall of black and Asian employees at the company. The evidence filed in the court indicated significant disparities in the hiring rates of black and Asian employees compared to majority white employees. The company struck a deal with the US Department of Labor and regulatory agencies to pay a total of $1.86 million in payback. Despite agreeing to pay, the company denied allegations. The bias in the hiring process had caused a significant shortfall in the number of white and Asian employees at the company between 2015 and 2019 when the lawsuit was filed against the company.
Bias Lawsuit against Glow Networks
In another verdict by a jury in Texas, ten employees of Glow Networks were awarded $70 million for continuous discrimination and harassment in the workplace (Bachman, 2022). The employees who consisted of ten black and one white employee claimed that the company exposed black employees to numerous cases of racial discrimination such as promotion denials, unequal pay, and exposure to hostile work environment. This was against the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act 1964. Employees proved that indeed, the company had exposed them to discrimination and retaliatory practices such as demotions, forceful layoffs, and denial of promotions.
Similarities between the Two bias Lawsuits
The similarities in the two lawsuits are that the biases targeted black employees, and they were perpetuated by racial differences Even though there was a white complainant in the Glow Networks lawsuit, majority of complainants were black employees. The same case applies to the Cerner company where minority black and Asian applicants. This is an indication that racism is still real, and successful litigations such as the ones discussed in this paper indicate that punishing perpetrators will help end racism in workplaces. There was also similarity in accepting the charges in both lawsuits. None of the employers owned up the claims. Instead, they only agreed to pay the damages. This is an indication that these companies could be reluctant to coming up with policies to address such instances in future.
References
Bachman, E. (2022). $70 Million verdict against Texas Company in employment discrimination case. Forbes. Web.
Moreno, J., E. (2022). Oracle-owned Cerner, labor department reach race bias settlement. Bloomberg Law. Web.
Shannon, J. H., & Hunter Jr, R. J. (2020). The Civil Rights Act of 1964: Beyond race to employment discrimination based on sex: the’three letter word’that has continued to vex society and The United States Supreme Court. Journal of Social and Political Sciences, 3(3).