A Middlesex Superior Court judge has rebuked the city manager of Cambridge, saying his “reprehensible” behavior amounted to a systematic campaign to oust a city employee who had filed a discrimination complaint. Judge Bonnie H. MacLeod-Mancuso’s words came as she affirmed a jury’s verdict last May that Cambridge should pay…
Latino workers in California and Texas allegedly punished for speaking Spanish in their workplaces will be granted up to $450,000, free English classes and other relief under a consent decree approved this week in a class-action lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Los Angeles. The lawsuit…
The Minneapolis City Council voted overwhelmingly to settle a discrimination lawsuit brought by five black police officers against the city, the police department and Chief Tim Dolan. The council voted 12-1 to pay the officers a total of $740,000 to settle the suit. The city admitted no guilt and will…
A federal jury awarded $2.3 M to a Los Angeles police officer who said she was sexually harassed and gave birth to a stillborn child because of the stress. Officer Melissa Borck, 45, said she suffered discrimination and abuse while she was at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Traffic…
A New Jersey jury has awarded an UPS employee $1 million after finding that his bosses at United Parcel Service retaliated against him after he complained that managers were violating company policies. In his lawsuit, 51-year-old Michael Battaglia said he was demoted and assigned to the night shift after lodging…
On Aug. 29, 2008 a jury awarded $3.3 million to an emergency medical technician who said her employer transferred her after she complained that she had been sexually assaulted and harassed by a co-worker. In 2004, Kathy Nieves told management at East Texas Medical Center EMS that she had been…
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., will pay $17.5 million to settle a lawsuit claiming the company discriminated against African-Americans in recruiting and hiring truck drivers. The lawsuit was filed in 2004 by Daryal Nelson, who claimed he was rejected for a truck-driver position because of his race. Nelson filed the suit in…
More workers are being let go as corporate layoffs have accelerated in recent weeks. And more often, people are looking around and complaining that they have been unfairly or improperly dismissed. Former employees of Lehman Brothers, say they were not given the required 60 days’ pay before their jobs vanished,…
A Travis County jury has awarded a woman $900,000 after finding that she was fired from her job at a state civil rights agency for complaining about discrimination against minorities at the agency. The jury arrived at the verdict after a six-day trial in a lawsuit that Marilou Morrison filed…
Workers who cooperate with their employers’ internal investigations of discrimination may not be fired in retaliation for implicating colleagues or superiors, according to a unanimous Supreme Court ruling. The court voted to reverse the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling that the anti-retaliation provision of Title VII of the…