Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer BlogA 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.
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Articles Posted in Wrongful Termination
Healthcare Firm Accused of Punishing Spanish-Speakers Settles Suit
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 alleged that Skilled Healthcare Group Inc. and affiliated firms, based in Orange County with facilities in six Western and Southern states, enforced an English-only rule against Latinos but not other ethnic groups speaking Tagalog and other languages.
Minneapolis Settles Bias Lawsuit Filed by 5 Black Officers
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 take no further action.
Lt. Don Harris will receive $187,668 from the settlement; Lt. Medaria Arradondo and Sgt. Charlie Adams each will get $187,666; Lt. Lee Edwards will receive $137,000; and Sgt. Dennis Hamilton will get $40,000.
ury Awards $2.3 M in LAPD Harassment Case
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 Division in 1996, and was retaliated against for reporting the harassment to Internal Affairs. The unanimous jury verdict comes a decade after Borck first filed the lawsuit in April, 1999. A mistrial was declared after her first trial in 2007 because of juror misconduct.
NJ Man Awarded $1M in UPS Whistleblower Lawsuit
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 his complaints in October 2005.
Following a month long trial in state Superior Court in New Brunswick, a jury found that UPS violated New Jersey’s anti-discrimination and whistleblower protection laws.
EMT Sexually Assaulted, Harassed by Co-Worker Awarded $3.3 M
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 harassed at work and assaulted in her home by Jeremy Cox, also an EMT.
Cox denied the allegations and subsequently accused Nieves of harassment. Nieves claimed that in retaliation for her complaints, East Texas reprimanded her, transferred her and precluded her from working in Coffman County.
Wal-Mart to Pay $17.5 M Racial Bias Settlement
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 federal court in Helena, Arkansas, on behalf of all black applicants who believe they were rejected or deterred from applying for the positions because of race. The lawsuit was given class-action, or group, status in May 2007.
Wal-Mart’s motions to dismiss the case or decertify the class were denied last month.
Layoffs Lead To Employee Lawsuits
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, while Dell is being sued over allegations of age and sex discrimination against workers.
Texas Workforce Commission Loses Suit For Wrongful Termination
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 against the Texas Commission on Human Rights and the Texas Workforce Commission.
The agency that is supposed to enforce civil rights is being hit with basically a million dollar judgment for violating the very statutes they are required to enforce.
Supreme Court Rules For Worker Over Retaliation
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 1964 Civil Rights Act does not apply to employees who merely cooperate with an internal probe rather than complain on their own or take part in a formal investigation.