Class Action Finder » Racial Dsicrimination

Xerox pays $12 million in racial discrimination lawsuit settlement

yuming — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:19:06 +0000

Electronic office equipment giant Xerox was sued in a racial discrimination class action suit in May 2001. Now, Xerox has made a $12 million settlement to 1,100 current and former African-American sales employees and to Diane Bradley, the lawyer who represented the class members.

The company will also form a team of employees to ensure that African American sales staff is remunerated in a non-discriminatory way by giving fair assessment of how sales territories are assigned.

Xerox did not release any official statement of wrongdoing or unlawful discrimination. It chose to make the settlement to end a “protracted and costly litigation”.

Walgreen to pay out $24 million discrimination settlement

yuming — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:48:34 +0000

U.S. District Judge G. Patrick Murphy has approved Walgreen’s offer to make a $24 million settlement for a class action suit alleging racial discrimination in its employment practices.

America’s largest drugstore chain will pay approximately 10,000 African American current and former employees.

Walgreen has 230,000 workers in its 6,237 stores in 49 states and Puerto Rico, Bruce said.

It was only last March that 14 African American past and present employees filed the class action lawsuit. The charges were that the Deerfield, Illinois-based company showed bias when making employment and assignment decisions. African American managers, management trainees and pharmacists were posted to low-performing stores and to shops in black neighborhoods, which in turn prevented them from receiving promotions.

The ruling also includes hiring external consultants to review and recommend standardized, non-discriminatory promotion criterion and store assignment procedures.

However, Walgreen still does not admit to doing any wrong. Since July 2007, the chain has been implementing the ruling’s requirements.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and a California-based law firm will oversee Walgreen’s observance of the decree, with Murphy presiding over jurisdiction for the next five years, according the EEOC.

Wells Fargo Bank

yuming — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:03:09 +0000

The city of Baltimore, Maryland, is suing San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank in a class action suit for its predatory loan system to their poorest African American neighbourhoods, which led to a shocking series of foreclosures.

To cope with a destabilized community, the city is looking to recoup the losses from the social repercussions of the foreclosures. The problems faced are: as property prices drop with foreclosures, the city gets less tax revenue, plus vacant houses tend to attract fires and crime, so police costs shoot up.

The lawsuit claims that this bank especially targeted African American neighbourhoods to sell their high-risk loans. For homes that are worth less than $75,000 or less, the loan dictates higher interest rates that were loaded with fees and surcharges. Such unfair lending practices are against the federal Fair Housing Act.

In defense of their lending processes, Wells Fargo Bank reportedly claimed not to have discriminated against or treated any of their customers unfairly.

According to the lawsuit, Wells Fargo made 1,285 loans a year from 2000 to 2007, making revenues of more than $600 million. Wells Fargo had 135 more foreclosures than any other loan provider. About 60 per cent of its foreclosures happened to neighborhoods that are more than two thirds African American.

The city of Baltimore had more than 33,000 homes foreclosed since 2000 and 2007. The plaintiff also claims that this situation worsens the already impoverished communities and thwarts their efforts to improve them further.

Advancement Project

yuming — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 03:56:42 +0000

Over two years after Hurricane Katrina, the displaced public housing residents of New Orleans are still scattered in temporary housing in other neighboring cities. However, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is planning to demolish four key public housing projects — C.J. Peete, St. Bernard, B.W. Cooper and Lafitte — and rebuild them into mixed-income residences.

This means that many of the former residents will not be able to return to their homes. Presently, these apartments, if not damaged by the hurricane, are apparently boarded up. What riled former residents is that the budget set aside for rebuilding New Orleans, post-Katrina, is the same money used to kick them out of their own homes.

This is where the Advancement Project comes in: it is a civil rights organization that is suing federal state and city officials on a racial discrimination charges. They claimed that the urban renewal project is a ruse to get rid of poor, jobless African American families. The lawsuit demands a stop to HUD’s planned demolition so that everyone will get the right to return to their old apartments.

A few government officials reportedly released statements like, New Orleans “is not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again”, “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did” and “We don’t need soap-opera watchers all day”, which fuelled the class action lawsuit according to conspiracy theorists.

Some architectural experts commented the damage done by Hurricane Katrina was minimal and these old apartments could be refurbished quickly and more cheaply, compared to tearing down the establishments completely and rebuilding them. On the other hand, detractors of this lawsuit argue that building mixed-income residences will not isolate the poor in a squalid, crime-and-gang-gripped area.

Walgreen Co.

yuming — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 03:55:41 +0000

On 7 March 2007, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) launched a class action lawsuit against Walgreen Co., the biggest drugstore chain in America, in terms of sales revenue.

This suit allegedly states Walgreen discriminates against its African American employees in terms of store assignments and promotion opportunities. In 2005, a private suit was launched against Walgreen but that failed so the EEOC stepped in.

Filed in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis, Ill., this lawsuit is launched by the EEOC to represent a group of current and former employees in Detroit, Tampa, Florida, St. Louis and Kansas City. This action reportedly followed after Walgreen staff submitted over 20 complaints across America.

The suit charges that Walgreen sent African American employees to predominantly minority neighborhoods that were also where low-performing stores were situated. This in turn dramatically decreased their chances for promotion that was based on sales figures. Additionally, work conditions were worse in such locations due to much higher crime rates.

Walgreen employees who have suffered this discrimination must have been employed since Jan 1, 2001. If Walgreen is indeed to be found in illegally involved in unfair employment practices, victims can claim back pay, compensatory and punitive damages, plus a stop to these biased employment policies.