Federal law forbids discrimination in the workplace on the basis of an employee’s race or traits connected to their race. However, racial discrimination still occurs at all points in the employment cycle, including recruiting, training, promotion, offering benefits, paying wages, and terminating employees.
We examine claims of racial discrimination at three significant US-based corporations in further detail below. If you have been the victim of racial discrimination or another type of discrimination, contact PLBH at (800) 435-7542 for a consultation with an employment law attorney.
Alleged Discriminatory Hiring Practices at Amazon
Charlotte Newman, a Black Amazon employee, sued the firm for failing to promote and underpaying minority employees. Amazon has a history of recruiting Black people for jobs for which they are overqualified, according to her attorneys.
After graduating from Harvard University with a master’s degree, according to Newman, she attended an interview for a senior manager post. Amazon wanted Newman to do senior management duties while being assigned a post one pay grade below the senior manager position.
Newman claimed financial losses, such as missing out on receiving valuable firm shares that have seen a sharp rise in value. According to each employee’s employment level, Amazon includes company shares in their compensation plan.
Alleged Discriminatory Working Conditions at Edward Jones
About 800 past and present Black workers of the St. Louis-based financial company Edward Jones recently reached a $34 million settlement in a class action lawsuit.
Junior advisors who left Edward Jones to work for other firms were subject to a policy that allowed them to recover the costs of their training. According to the lawsuit, this approach disproportionately injured Black employees since they were denied equal opportunities at the company and experienced failure at a higher rate than white employees.
Additionally, more accounts were allegedly given to white brokers, according to the lawsuit. In 2019, the company made an effort to remedy this by updating their account distribution mechanism. Since then, brokers who give accounts to female and minority brokers have been rewarded for their production.
In order to deal with diversity challenges going future, Edward Jones is establishing a new financial advisor council. Additionally, they are updating their regulations regarding training expense recovery, lowering the maximum amount from $75,000 to $50,000.
Alleged Discriminatory Promotional Practices at Starbucks
Starbucks and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) signed a confidential agreement earlier this year in response to the EEOC’s allegations that the corporation had discriminatory promotion policies. The EEOC examined promotion data from 2007 to 2011 and discovered that minority employees were promoted less frequently than was anticipated during that time.
Starbucks has committed to modifying its promotion procedures in order to promote equality among all workers. The online company application system will now be used to track all retail job advertisements. No longer will employees receive promotions outside of the established system. Additionally, Starbucks has recruited a labor economist to study diversity promotion statistics and develop goals for the business.
If you have been the victim of this type of discrimination, contact PLBH at (800) 435-7542 for help.