Company to pay $2.75 million to resolve race discrimination case with EEOC
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An environmental cleanup company has agreed to pay $2.75 million to resolve a race discrimination case brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in which harassment included the display of multiple hangmen’s nooses, the agency said Wednesday.
The EEOC said Tampa, Fla.-based WRS Infrastructure and Environment Inc., which does business as WRS Compass, subjected seven black workers at its Lake Calumet, Ill., site to a hostile work environment and discriminatory terms and conditions of employment, and fired two of the workers when they complained about the discrimination.
In addition to the nooses, harassment involved racially offensive language, less favorable equipment assignments and physical threats from co-workers the EEOC said.
The company also created a hostile work environment for four white workers who associated with African-American employees, who are included in the settlement, according to the EEOC.
In addition to the $2.75 million settlement to the 11 workers, the three-year nationwide consent decree, which has been approved by federal district court in Chicago, has provisions including a requirement that WRS revise its antidiscrimination policy and conduct training on the policy.
Commenting on the settlement, John Hendrickson, the EEOC’s regional attorney in Chicago, said the case had been about to go to trial when the settlement was reached. “The EEOC takes racial threats and intimidation very seriously and will take actions against employers who permit employees to be harassed because of race or because of racial association,” he said.
A company spokesman could not be reached for comment.
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