Human Resource Blog

Race Discrimination in Ohio

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The owner of our

Delaware company wants to keep all the black managers in stores in predominantly African-American neighborhoods. Isn’t this discrimination?

It might seem on the surface to be common sense to place African-American managers in black stores, where it is assumed they would have a better connection with customers. But according to the law, this is discrimination.

A group of black pharmacists and managers for Walgreen’s argued this through a lawsuit brought against the nation’s largest chain of drugstores by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC.

The EEOC’s lawsuit argued that the black managers and pharmacists, as a result, were assigned to so-called underperforming stores, which limited their earning possibilities, and their opportunities in general compared to people of other races in Walgreen.

Walgreen chose to settle out of court for $20 million, and the award was split nationwide among roughly 10,000 Walgreen employees, both current and former. While the EEOC brought its complaints on behalf of managers and pharmacists in stores in Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Tampa, the case expanded into a class action suit, which went national.

The drugstore chain decided on settling out of court rather than admitting wrongdoing or becoming involved in a long and costly trial.

The EEOC enforces a law called Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which disallows discrimination in either promotion or hiring based on skin color, race, sex, religion or national origin.

It applies as well to discharge, job training, pay, classification, referral, and other practices involving the workplace. And that includes transferring managers between stores. The law also declares it illegal to discriminate in many other respects, including the award of benefits to workers, such as time off, health insurance, discounts, and the like.

In addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, there is Executive Order 11246. The order includes contractors and sub-contractors on projects at the federal level. It also requires affirmative action measures.