Delivery Company DHL Ordered to Pay $8.7 Million to Settle Claims of Race Discrimination Brought in EEOC Lawsuit

As a law firm that has been representing victims of racial discrimination in the workplace for over two decades, our employment race discrimination lawyers in Citrus County, Florida, know that employers sometimes discriminate against Black workers by the sorts of tasks they are assigned to compared to their white counterparts. Recently, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) took notice of discriminatory practices occurring at one of the country’s (and world’s) largest package delivery services and filed a lawsuit. To resolve the charges against it, the shipper agreed to pay a staggering $8.7 million and change many of its practices. Learn more below about the discrimination that led to the settlement against DHL, and contact our experienced Ocala employment lawyers if you’ve been the victim of race or color discrimination at your central Florida workplace.

DHL Gave Its Black Drivers the Hardest and Most Dangerous Assignments, in Violation of Title VII

The case of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission et al v. DHL Express (USA) was heard in the United States District Court for the North District of Illinois (Civil Action No.10-cv-6139) after unsuccessful attempts to resolve the complaint through its pre-litigation conciliation process. The facts as alleged in EEOC’s complaint were that DHL gave Black drivers routes in more dangerous neighborhoods than white drivers, based on crime rate statistics in the neighborhoods. In consequence, Black drivers regularly witnessed crimes occurring while on their routes and occasionally became crime victims themselves while driving their assigned routes. The lawsuit also complained that Black and white employees were segregated in the workplace, with Black employees given much heavier dock work while whites were tasked with sorting letters.

Workers to Share in $8.7 Million Settlement

These actions amounted to unlawful racial discrimination and racial segregation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to the EEOC. Amazingly, these charges were first filed in 2010 and are finally resolved after 14 years of litigation. The sizable settlement will be paid to 83 employees who participated in the lawsuit, amounting to over $100,000 per employee, on average. In addition, DHL will remain under the oversight of a court-appointed monitor (former EEOC Commissioner Leslie Silverman) for the four-year duration of the consent decree. DHL’s responsibilities under the consent decree include training its workforce on federal antidiscrimination laws and reporting periodically to the monitor and EEOC on its work assignments and any racial discrimination complaints received. Silverman will monitor the status of required training and review the quality and efficacy of DHL’s complaint procedures, as well as monitor work assignments themselves to ensure they are no longer being based on race.

Employment Discrimination Takes on Many Forms

This case is notable not just for the length of litigation and size of the settlement, but also for the type of discrimination rooted out in the complaint. Typically, when one learns of workplace race discrimination, one expects to hear about disparities in pay, denied promotions, refusal to hire or termination based on race. But Title VII protects workers across the entire spectrum of employment-related decisions, from applications and recruitment to termination and everything in between. This case reinforces the principle that doling out unequal work assignments based on race and racially segregating employees are every bit as unlawful as wage disparities, disciplinary decisions and retaliation based on race. And the consequences for violations are just as severe.

Marion County Employment Lawyers

Based in Ocala, Florida, and representing workers statewide, our Marion County race discrimination lawyers are dedicated to fighting for the rights of employment racial discrimination victims. If you have been given harder, dirtier, or more dangerous work because of your race or were forced to work in a racially segregated environment, please contact our office for a free consultation with our Marion County employment lawyers. Our employee rights law firm takes disability discrimination cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that there are no attorney’s fees incurred unless there is a recovery and our attorney’s fees come solely from the monetary award that you recover.