New National Origin Discrimination Settlement: $1.25M Payout Linked to Ugly Email

A federal contractor headquartered in Washington, D.C., will pay $1.25 million to settle a national origin discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of Hispanic workers who were fired, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently announced.

Some affected individuals had been working at their jobs for at least 10 years — and in some instances, nearly two decades.

EEOC Investigates National Origin Discrimination Complaints

R&R Janitorial, Painting, and Building Services, Inc. (R&R) provides janitorial services to government agencies.

In April 2018, R&R fired a group of Hispanic janitors who worked at the Harry S. Truman building. After an investigation, the EEOC determined the janitors were let go because of their Central American national origins and race.

The vice president of R&R selected the employees for termination, the EEOC said. Moreover, the agency found that the vice president made racially charged remarks shortly before the janitors were fired. Specifically, he allegedly said:

• Hispanics were taking over the D.C. area, and
• “All amigos look alike” to him.

The EEOC also determined that the vice president forwarded an email that compared immigrants to raccoons needing extermination.

In the EEOC’s view, such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits race and national origin discrimination in the workplace, including firing individuals on that basis. The agency filed a lawsuit on the janitors’ behalf.

EEOC Lawsuit Alleges Pattern of Discrimination

The lawsuit alleged that the janitors were fired because of their national origin and that R&R continued to employ janitors with less seniority than the Hispanic janitors who were let go. The suit also claimed R&R subjected the Hispanic janitors to discrimination by:

• Tolerating unwelcome and offensive remarks based on national origin and race
• Assigning them the most unfavorable tasks
• Rejecting their concerns raised about disparate treatment based on national origin and race, and
• Threatening to replace janitors who reported or opposed the treatment.

The lawsuit sought back pay, reinstatement, compensatory damages, punitive damages and injunctive relief to prevent workplace discrimination against Hispanic employees.

Ultimately, the contractor agreed to pay $1.25 million to resolve the dispute. Under a three-year consent decree, R&R is prohibited from discriminating against workers based on national origin or race in the future. It must also:

• Train management on Title VII compliance
• Provide training to non-supervisory employees on anti-discrimination protections in both English and Spanish, and
• Submit to EEOC monitoring on terminations and complaints of race and national origin discrimination.

“We are pleased this settlement provides meaningful relief to the hard-working Hispanic employees who were fired,” said Debra Lawrence, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Philadelphia District Office. “Discrimination based on race or national origin has no place in the American workplace.”

HR Takeaways

The consent decree requires bilingual training, EEOC oversight and reporting on terminations and complaints. Those obligations increase both the operational burden and the ongoing cost of the settlement because the employer must spend time, staff capacity and money to meet the monitoring and reporting requirements in addition to the payment itself.

HR teams should treat termination documentation as if an outside investigator will read it later. That means using consistent criteria, making sure supervisors can explain their decisions and keeping a clear record of complaints and how they were handled.

The bilingual training requirement also matters. If employees cannot understand the training, it is harder to show that it achieved its purpose with the workforce.