Results tagged “equalemploymentopportunitycommission”

B&H Photo-Video, the huge photo and video store on 9th Avenue and 34th Street, will pay $4.3 million to settle an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint. The EEOC contended that B&H paid Hispanic employees in its warehouses less than other workers, many of whom are religious Jews; this is in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

A junior trader at one of the world's largest hedge funds, SAC Capital, is suing the company. Andrew Tong alleges that his boss Ping Jiang––the two men are 37 and 41 years old, respectively––forced him to take estrogen hormone pills and wear a dress to work. This was supposedly to feminize him and make him a better trader. Tong also alleges that he was sexually assaulted while at work. If this is the first you've heard of this affair, background can be found at the Wall St. tabloid DealBreaker.com.

Mayor Bloomberg spoke out about the various lawsuits alleging that his company, Bloomberg LP, discriminates against women. He believes that he was personally named in one of lawsuits "because I’m so visible, that obviously I’m a target." He added, "We think there's no substance to it whatsoever and the company will vigorously defend it and that's that.

Mayor Bloomberg was named in a bias lawsuit filed by three former Bloomberg LP employees. This now accompanies a lawsuit, which charges that female employees were discriminated against, that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed against the billionaire's media company earlier this week. The lawsuit says, "Upon information and belief, Michael Bloomberg is responsible for the creation of the systemic, top-down culture of discrimination which exists within Bloomberg."

French megachef Daniel Boulud has agreed to settle a federal lawsuit that alleges he discriminated against nonwhite employees at his restaurant Daniel, according to an article in today's Times.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Fire Department, saying that FDNY exams in 1999 and 2002 discriminated against black and Hispanic candidates. Black and HIspanic candidates fail the exam at much higher rates, and currently, the blacks and Hispanics make up only 7.5% of the FDNY's 11,000 firefighters. The NY Times notes that the fire departments of LA and Philadelphia are more than 40% black or Hispanic.

Lawsuits claiming hostile work environments have now hit the gym. A group of janitors claim that while working at Equinox fitness club locations, the Post excitedly details, they were "exposed inappropriate, lewd, embarrassing and humiliating sexual behavior and activities occurring in the showers, saunas, steam and [men's] locker rooms."

The NYCLU is getting involved with the case of Michelle McCusker, who was fired from her Catholic school teaching job for being pregnant while unmarried. St. Rose of Lima School in Rockaway says that McCusker violated the "tenets of Catholic morality" (the principal wrote, "When a situation becomes evident that a teacher's life can not [sic] witness what the Catholic Church teaches, then termination of contract must occur"); the NYCLU is claiming gender discrimination, asking how the Catholic school would investigate a male teacher for impregnating a woman not his wife. McCusker is taking the "what else was I supposed to do route?" by saying:

"I don't understand how a religion that prides itself on being forgiving could terminate me because I am unmarried and choose to have a baby...If I decided to abort the baby, the decision to fire me would not have been made because they would not have known."

Which is totally true! McCusker was pregnant when she was hired in September, but only told her principal after the first trimester. The Daily News points out that when an unmarried employee for a Catholic charity in Buffalo was demoted for being pregnant, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission "found that the charity violated anti-discrimination laws."

Some of the injustices employees are claiming is that they were criticized for speaking Spanish to a South American customer and for speaking Spanish to each other during breaks, though managers spoke in other languages to their relatives on the phone and in French to stockboys. Sephora says they encourage employees to speak customers' native languages, but feels that speaking in non-English language can seem offputting.