by Patricia A. Schaeffer, Vice President-Regulatory Affairs
Michigan Seamless, a steel tubing company in South Lyon, Michigan, has agreed to pay $500,000 and implement injunctive relief to settle a race discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC. The agency had charged that the company, after purchasing the assets of its predecessor company, had refused to hire a class of African American former employees of the predecessor.
EEOC alleged the company began hiring former employees of the predecessor in November 2002, but that no African American employees of the previous company were ever hired. The complaint alleged that many white employees hired had significantly less experience than the black former employees represented by the EEOC, and in some cases, had actually been trained by the same African American employees who were denied hire.