Chemical Manufacturer to Pay $175,000 to Settle Race Bias Lawsuit

Source: CCH Online and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

A Chicago-area chemical manufacturer will pay $175,000 to settle a class race bias and reprisal lawsuit filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC. The company is a leading manufacturer of high-quality surfactants, polymers, chemical specialties, and cosmetic preservatives, according to company information.

The company violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by subjecting a class of African-American employees to race discrimination, race harassment and retaliation for complaining about the misconduct, the EEOC alleged in its complaint.

In addition to paying a total of $175,000 in monetary benefits to the class, the two-year consent decree, entered by Judge George Lindberg on July 1, 2008, requires the company to provide training to its employees; post a notice of the outcome of this litigation; and report to the EEOC any complaints of racial discrimination and/or harassment made by its employees. The decree also provides for an injunction which prohibits the company from engaging in race discrimination in the future.

"The Commission has recently focused its efforts on issues of race and color discrimination in the workplace through its E-RACE Initiative," said EEOC Chicago Regional Attorney John Hendrickson. "We believe that the consent decree advances this initiative by making whole the victims of discrimination and by educating McIntyre's employees on their federally protected rights to be free of race discrimination and harassment in the workplace."

In Fiscal Year 2007, the EEOC received 30,510 charges alleging race-based discrimination, accounting for 37 percent of the agency's private sector caseload. Historically, race-based charges have been the most frequent type of filing with EEOC offices nationwide.

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