A California based post-acute skilled nursing corporation is facing charges by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for allowing racial harassment against black employees and allowing one of those employees to receive retaliation. The alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race and retaliation. Three of the post-acute skilled nursing corporation’s facilities were named in the lawsuit.
The EEOC’s lawsuit states that since at least 2018 the corporation permitted black employees to be subjected to racial harassment by residents, coworkers, and a supervisor. Claims of harassment included repeated, frequent, and offensive race-based remarks and slurs directed at the staff members. The EEOC claims that all three post-acute facilities named in the lawsuit failed to adequately respond to multiple complaints of harassment. The employees were told to tolerate abusive remarks and a hostile work environment, and one employee was retaliated against for complaining about racial harassment.
The suit was filed after unsuccessful attempts to reach a pre-litigation settlement through the conciliation process. Compensatory and punitive damages for the class of employees, as well as injunctive relief intended to prevent and correct discrimination, are being sought by the EEOC.
Preventing systemic workplace harassment through strong enforcement is one of the six national priorities identified by the EEOC’s Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP). For more information on harassment, visit https://www.eeoc.gov/harassment. For more information on race and color discrimination, you can visit https://www.eeoc.gov/racecolor-discrimination.
Issue:
All employees must be aware that it is illegal to harass a person because of race or color. Harassment can include racial slurs, offensive or derogatory remarks about a person’s race or color, or the display of racially offensive symbols. Simple teasing or offhand comments can turn into harassment when they become so frequent or severe that they create a hostile or offensive work environment or result in an adverse employment decision, such as the victim being fired or demoted. Retaliation in the workplace should never be tolerated, and every company should have a zero-tolerance policy against retaliation occurring to anyone who reports a concern or participates in an investigation.
Discussion Points:
- Review your policies and procedures on preventing and addressing harassment in the workplace. Additionally, review your policy and procedure for preventing retaliation. Update as necessary.
- Train all staff on your policies for preventing harassment and retaliation and their responsibility to report it when it happens to them or to a coworker. Document that these trainings occurred, and file the signed documents into each employee’s individual education file.
- Periodically seek input from employees to determine if they have been a victim of any type of harassment or retaliation. Additionally, audit to ensure that all employees are aware of the steps they should take if they suspect wrongdoing and their awareness of the compliance hotline.
