THE EEOC FILES RACE DISCRIMINATION SUITS

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that it has filed employment discrimination suits against the Atlanta Bread Co. restaurant chain and BJ's Wholesale Club Inc.

In separate lawsuits filed in federal court, the EEOC claimed that Natick, Mass.-based BJ's and Smyrna, Ga.-based Atlanta Bread International Inc. allowed racial discrimination of black and Hispanic employees.

According to the EEOC, between June 2005 and Sept. 2005, the Atlanta Bread Co. and ARO Enterprises, also known as Acra Enterprises, fired black employees and segregated them by race at the South Florida restaurant.

"It is shocking in the 21st century to see a work force segregated by race and the systematic termination of virtually all black employees," said the commission's regional attorney Delner Franklin-Thomas in a statement. "All these workers wanted was an opportunity to provide for themselves and their families; they were denied that because of the color of their skin."

In the BJ's case, managers at the company's Homestead store in south Florida allegedly harassed Hispanic and black employees with slurs and other derogatory comments.

Source: www.newsvine.com