Good news!

[mia]

Fired Haitian dishwashers at a South Beach hotel to get $2.5M after discrimination suit

Four years ago, something bitter was brewing in the kitchens of the ritzy SLS South Beach hotel.

Seventeen of the Haitian dishwashers employed at the hotel’s restaurants, which included The Bazaar by Jose Andrés, Katsuya, and Hyde Beach, were banned from speaking Creole, while Hispanic colleagues were free to chat in Spanish, according to a discrimination lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Haitian workers were also asked to lug heavy items up the hotel’s 13 floors by stairs while other workers were spared.

When the Haitian workers asked managers to fix the hotel’s broken service elevator, one boss stated, “Let those slaves do the work.” The dishwashers reported the alleged abuse to human resources in April 2014. The entire dishwashing staff was then fired and replaced the same day with a staff “made up of almost entirely of white and/or Hispanic workers,” according to the lawsuit.

On Friday night, the hotel agreed to pay $2.5 million to the 17 people who were fired. It was a settlement to the suit that was filed in April 2017 by the federal employment agency....

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article215764980.html

[marble falls]

1. I really enjoyed the part where their spokesman said they admitted nothing and settled ...

for $2.5M to make everyone feel good and signed an agreement for race sensitivity training for their entire management and supervisory team as well as mandatory reporting of their hiring and firing for three years. AND the owners and partners all claimed not to be aware or being in place to know about what was going on.

Riiiiiiiiiigggggghhhhhhhhhtttttt. You give away $100,000 to make it go away, you pay $2.5M to settle before you end up paying more. The consent they agreed to proves they were guilty, guilty, guilty.

[mia]

3. "...one boss stated, 'Let those slaves do the work.' "

The most telling statement of all.

[marble falls]

12. Yes and the fact that they hired a "contractor" who did the firing as a layer of plausible ...

deniability is another. It didn't take long for the chef they licensed the restaurant around to separate himself from the whole crap.

[Hortensis]

2. That's our Equal Employment Opportunity Commission at work.

Mr. Weisberg, portrait of a hero, one of them anyway.



Thanks for a good job, guys.

[mia]

6. A hero indeed! Testimony of Robert Weisberg - Confronting Racial and Ethnic Discrimination

In the 21st Century Workplace


https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/meetings/4-15-15/weisberg.cfm

...I joined the Commission as the Regional Attorney for the Miami District office on September 27, 2010 after practicing civil rights law in the private sector for over 25 years primarily through my own small statewide plaintiff-side firm based in Miami. When it was announced that I would become the new Regional Attorney in Miami, many of my friends and professional acquaintances questioned the wisdom of my decision to leave private practice to work for the federal government. One frequently asked question was, "Why now, after the election of the first African American president, would you decide to join the EEOC? The clear suggestion was that Barack Obama's election meant that the "mission was accomplished" for the war on civil rights. Of course, I, along with many others, was hopeful that the election of an African American as President signaled a huge step forward toward racial equality in the workplace and in other areas of American life.

Sadly, soon after I started with the Commission, it became clear to me that this was not the case. I vividly recall soon after I started reviewing several charges filed by African American sales personnel at a northern Florida car dealership complaining of a racially hostile work environment and discriminatory treatment regarding the receipt of sales leads. Following an investigation and cause determinations, a conciliation agreement was reached which compensated the charging parties who had resigned and required training to prevent this conduct from happening in the future.

Beyond my introduction to the EEOC almost 5 years ago, any question about whether we live and work in a post-racial America today can be sadly dispelled by three separate news items published in the local Miami media within the past month. Although not directly related to workplace racial discrimination, these three unrelated incidents underscore the role race continues to play in 2015 America and, specifically, in South Florida.

First, in late March, 2015, the South Florida news media reported that the Ft. Lauderdale Police Department fired three police officers and another resigned after an internal investigation found that they had exchanged multiple racist text messages and joked about "killing niggers."1 The local NAACP chapter has asked the Department of Justice to investigate....

https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/meetings/4-15-15/weisberg.cfm

[PatrickforO]

4. Makes my day! I love it when workers win. Doesn't

happen nearly often enough now that the Koch brothers and other billionaire freaks have effectively busted most of the unions, and we have a new conservative guy who will probably be confirmed for the Supreme Court that will help them continue in the vein.

PS, but cheer up! Hey, if the workers turn it around and start winning the battle for better benefits, wages and working conditions, the right wing will make sure we have a nice, big WAR. That always works! Yep, then they can accuse workers who want more of treason. That's how they broke unions in the early 20th century - the Sedition Act in WWI.

Heck, the billionaire class outdid themselves with that Sedition Act. Basically it outlawed any dissenting opinions about the war that was happening. Here's an excerpt from Wiki:

...extended the Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds.[1]

It forbade the use of "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, its flag, or its armed forces or that caused others to view the American government or its institutions with contempt. Those convicted under the act generally received sentences of imprisonment for five to 20 years.

So there you have it! A handy solution to those pesky workers who wanted to cut into billionaire profits. Throw 'em in jail for 20 years. That's how they got rid of the Eugene Debs. And the Wobblies and other unions.

[mia]

14. It's always a good day when workers win!

Thank you for your post.

[FakeNoose]

5. The hotel managers should have been fired

... but this is a good start! I hope these Haitians become citizens and vote in the next election.

[radical noodle]

7. I sincerely hope the lawyers

don't get all of it.

[aggiesal]

9. I don't believe they'll get any of it ...

The case was argued by the EEOC, a public entity.

Each of the 17 will get approximately $147,000+

[radical noodle]

11. Great! n/t

[mia]

10. Hope so. EEOC "...positions are governed by the federal General Service pay scale."

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the federal agency charged with enforcing laws prohibiting employment discrimination. As a civil law-enforcement agency, the EEOC is staffed with hundreds of attorneys performing various legal tasks, including trial attorneys, legal counsel, general counsel and administrative judges. The salaries for these positions are governed by the federal General Service pay scale.

https://pocketsense.com/eeoc-lawyer-salary-8589064.html

[Marcuse]

13. They can't even accept a tip.

[rocktivity]

8. And none of them could be threatened with being in the U.S. illegally? Darn it!

Minus the lawyers' cut, that's close to $100K each. Nice haul!


rocktivity