The U.S. Department of Labor is suing a Jessup-based demolition contractor for allegedly discriminating against 162 Hispanic and African American workers.
The lawsuit filed with the department's Office of Administrative Law Judges alleges that between 2011 and 2012, Potomac Abatement Inc. forced 145 Hispanic employees into lower-paying jobs and harassed them because of their race, and terminated 17 African American workers because of their race.
Potomac Abatement denied any wrongdoing.
"Potomac Abatement is committed to equal employment opportunity and affirmative action in the workplace and takes pride in being a high-quality, specialty contractor for various government agencies. Potomac regrets that the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has chosen not to recognize the significant actions Potomac has taken to diversify its workforce and has chosen instead to file an administrative complaint," the company said in a statement.
Read more from the Baltimore Sun here.
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
EEOC Issues Final Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation
EEOC ISSUES FINAL ENFORCEMENT GUIDANCE ON RETALIATION AND RELATED ISSUES AFTER PUBLIC INPUT PROCESS
The Commission has also issued two short user-friendly resource documents to accompany the new guidance: a question-and-answer publication that summarizes the guidance document, and a short Small Business Fact Sheet that condenses the major points in the guidance in non-legal language.
"Retaliation is asserted in nearly 45 percent of all charges we receive and is the most frequently alleged basis of discrimination," said EEOC Chair Jenny R. Yang. "The examples and promising practices included in the guidance are aimed at assisting all employers reduce the likelihood of retaliation. The public input provided during the development of this guidance was valuable to the Commission in producing a document to help employers prevent retaliation and to help employees understand their rights."
On Jan. 21, 2016, EEOC published a proposed guidance for public input on www.regulations.gov. The final guidance issued today reflects the Commission’s consideration of feedback received on the proposal from approximately 60 organizations and individuals representing a wide range of viewpoints. In preparing the final guidance, the agency also considered the stakeholder views expressed at the June 17, 2015 Commission Meeting held on this topic.
The guidance addresses retaliation under each of the statutes enforced by EEOC, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), Title V of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Equal Pay Act (EPA) and Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA).
Topics explained in the new guidance include:
- The scope of employee activity protected by the law.
- Legal analysis to be used to determine if evidence supports a claim of retaliation.
- Remedies available for retaliation.
- Rules against interference with the exercise of rights under the ADA.
- Detailed examples of employer actions that may constitute retaliation.
Since EEOC’s 1998 Compliance Manual section on retaliation, the U.S. Supreme Court has issued seven decisions addressing retaliation under EEOC-enforced laws, and the filing of EEO claims that include a retaliation allegation has continued to grow. Charges of retaliation surpassed race discrimination in 2009 as the most frequently alleged basis of discrimination, accounting for 44.5 percent of all charges received by EEOC in FY 2015. In the federal sector, retaliation has been the most frequently alleged basis since 2008, and retaliation findings comprised between 42 percent and 53 percent of all findings of EEO violations from 2009 to 2015.
EEOC is responsible for enforcing federal laws against employment discrimination. Further information about the agency is available at www.eeoc.gov.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
The Keys to Harassment Prevention: An Interview With EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum
Chai Feldblum is a Commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). She co-chaired the EEOC Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace, and produced a report in June of 2016, together with Commissioner Victoria Lipnic, that drew on the work of the task force.
Read the interview here.
Read the interview here.
College Profs Admit Affirmative Action is Failing Students, Get Called Racist
Professors at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. are being denounced as white supremacists after private messages were leaked in which they claim affirmative action sets up students for academic failure at the school.
The controversy in question concerns two letters sent by faculty in Smith’s School for Social Work to school administrators. Although the letters were initially private, they were leaked to students at the school by an unknown person, who said they wished to reveal the “violent, racist rhetoric directed toward students of color on the Smith campus.”
The first letter, sent by professor Dennis Miehls, warns that the school was failing in its “gatekeeper” function by admitting too many academically unprepared applicants.
“Why do you, as administrators, continue to offer differential outcomes to students of color, in spite of overwhelming data that demonstrates that many of our students, including white-identified students, cannot offer clients a social work intervention that is based upon competence, skills and ethics,” Miehls said in his letter. Miehls went so far as to call the admissions process “tainted” because of how willing it was to admit unprepared non-white students.
Read more here.
The controversy in question concerns two letters sent by faculty in Smith’s School for Social Work to school administrators. Although the letters were initially private, they were leaked to students at the school by an unknown person, who said they wished to reveal the “violent, racist rhetoric directed toward students of color on the Smith campus.”
The first letter, sent by professor Dennis Miehls, warns that the school was failing in its “gatekeeper” function by admitting too many academically unprepared applicants.
“Why do you, as administrators, continue to offer differential outcomes to students of color, in spite of overwhelming data that demonstrates that many of our students, including white-identified students, cannot offer clients a social work intervention that is based upon competence, skills and ethics,” Miehls said in his letter. Miehls went so far as to call the admissions process “tainted” because of how willing it was to admit unprepared non-white students.
Read more here.
Prof: affirmative action 'not necessary or desirable'
A political science professor claims that “it makes little sense to continue” affirmative action and contends that the Supreme Court ruled incorrectly when it recently upheld the practice.
Kul B. Rai, professor emeritus of political science at Southern Connecticut State University, speculates in an op-ed for the Republican American that if universities were to continue using racial preferences in admissions decisions, it “clearly would be at the cost of deserving white students,” because student diversity is already largely in line with the overall population.
“The origin of affirmative action stems from the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” he observes, noting that “President Lyndon Johnson had advocated ‘equality as a result,’ not just equality of opportunity.”
Rai cites statistics pertaining to racial breakdowns of college students to prove that equality in higher education, as desired by Johnson, has already been achieved.
Read more from Campus Reform here.
Kul B. Rai, professor emeritus of political science at Southern Connecticut State University, speculates in an op-ed for the Republican American that if universities were to continue using racial preferences in admissions decisions, it “clearly would be at the cost of deserving white students,” because student diversity is already largely in line with the overall population.
“The origin of affirmative action stems from the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” he observes, noting that “President Lyndon Johnson had advocated ‘equality as a result,’ not just equality of opportunity.”
Rai cites statistics pertaining to racial breakdowns of college students to prove that equality in higher education, as desired by Johnson, has already been achieved.
Read more from Campus Reform here.
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