LEGAL BRIEFS: Chicago's Niketown Finally Settles in Race Discrimination Lawsuit
A class action lawsuit was filed against Niketown (Chicago, IL) in 1999 alleging race-based discrimination. The lawsuit (filed by more than 400 African American employees) alleged that Nike discriminated against and continues to discriminate against its African-American employees and managers at Niketown Chicago by:
• Subjecting African-American employees and managers to a hostile working environment created by harassing activities, including the use of racial epithets; accusations and coercive interrogations regarding alleged thefts and misuse of employee discounts; greater scrutiny and monitoring of African-American employees and managers than given to their Caucasian co-workers, including extensive “check-out” searches upon leaving the store; and greater scrutiny and monitoring of African-American customers than Caucasian customers.
They also say that Nike has unlawfully discriminated against its non-managerial African-American employees at Niketown Chicago by:
• Segregating its African-American employees into its lowest level and worst-paid jobs in the stockroom and cashier positions.
• Denying African-American employees equal opportunity for promotions to more attractive positions.
• Applying workplace rules and giving out discipline–up to and including termination–in a racially biased manner.
• Denying employment benefits to African-American employees by predominately hiring African-Americans into part-time rather than full-time positions and by denying appropriate benefits to those who, though officially part-time, worked enough hours to be entitled to full-time benefits.
Nike denies all wrongdoing. However, both the parties involved agreed to a settlement which was preliminarily approved by the Court on July 30, 2007. The settlement stipulates that Nike will pay $7.6 million to resolve the claims of class members.
In addition to the monetary relief, Nike has agreed to affirmative relief including: a Court appointed Diversity Consultant to monitor and periodically report to the Court regarding Niketown Chicago’s compliance with the Consent Decree; appointment of a Compliance Officer at Nike’s World Headquarters; designation of an Ombudsperson at Niketown Chicago; diversity training of all supervisors and managers at Niketown Chicago; the creation of store-wide objectives focused on providing equal employment opportunities for all employees; creation of a formal mentoring program for African-American employees; the review and revision of Niketown Chicago’s human resources practices; and review and revision of Niketown Chicago’s loss prevention practices to eliminate any disparate treatment of African-American employees and customers.
Sources: http://www.nikediscrimination.com/ and http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/25/03/48.html
• Subjecting African-American employees and managers to a hostile working environment created by harassing activities, including the use of racial epithets; accusations and coercive interrogations regarding alleged thefts and misuse of employee discounts; greater scrutiny and monitoring of African-American employees and managers than given to their Caucasian co-workers, including extensive “check-out” searches upon leaving the store; and greater scrutiny and monitoring of African-American customers than Caucasian customers.
They also say that Nike has unlawfully discriminated against its non-managerial African-American employees at Niketown Chicago by:
• Segregating its African-American employees into its lowest level and worst-paid jobs in the stockroom and cashier positions.
• Denying African-American employees equal opportunity for promotions to more attractive positions.
• Applying workplace rules and giving out discipline–up to and including termination–in a racially biased manner.
• Denying employment benefits to African-American employees by predominately hiring African-Americans into part-time rather than full-time positions and by denying appropriate benefits to those who, though officially part-time, worked enough hours to be entitled to full-time benefits.
Nike denies all wrongdoing. However, both the parties involved agreed to a settlement which was preliminarily approved by the Court on July 30, 2007. The settlement stipulates that Nike will pay $7.6 million to resolve the claims of class members.
In addition to the monetary relief, Nike has agreed to affirmative relief including: a Court appointed Diversity Consultant to monitor and periodically report to the Court regarding Niketown Chicago’s compliance with the Consent Decree; appointment of a Compliance Officer at Nike’s World Headquarters; designation of an Ombudsperson at Niketown Chicago; diversity training of all supervisors and managers at Niketown Chicago; the creation of store-wide objectives focused on providing equal employment opportunities for all employees; creation of a formal mentoring program for African-American employees; the review and revision of Niketown Chicago’s human resources practices; and review and revision of Niketown Chicago’s loss prevention practices to eliminate any disparate treatment of African-American employees and customers.
Sources: http://www.nikediscrimination.com/ and http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/25/03/48.html
Labels: discrimination, harassment, heightened scrutiny, hostile work environment, racial dispartities
posted by S. Mary Wills at 11:17 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home