by Patricia A. Schaeffer, Vice President-Regulatory Affairs
The EEOC has announced settlement of a class race and national origin discrimination lawsuit brought against Flushing Manor Geriatric Center, Inc., a New York geriatric center, for $900,000. The company does business as William O. Benenson Rehabilitation Pavilion.
The EEOC charged the company with subjecting 29 black and Caribbean employees to harassment and retaliation by permitting harassing comments based on race and/or national origin by its managers and residents against the workers, who served in the nursing, food service, housekeeping, and recreation departments. The EEOC also claim the company prohibited Haitian employees from speaking in Creole while permitting other non-English languages to be spoken at the facility; subjecting black and/or Caribbean employees to stricter disciplinary actions as compared to others; and retaliating against those who brought these issues to management. The EEOC said the owner retaliated against the employees by attempting to force them to withdraw their agency charges through harassing telephone calls to one of the claimant’s family members.
