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Store Assignments in Alaska

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Our Alaska company has the policy of assigning black store managers only to stores in predominantly black neighborhoods. Is this discrimination, or common sense?

It isn’t hard to understand that an employer might think a black manager will fare better with customers in a black neighborhood, but what you’re doing is illegal. Placing a person in a job because of his/her race is discrimination.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination against race, color, sex, religion or country of origin. Hiring practices are included in the protections of Title VII, and the law is enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Anytime a job has an opening, every qualified employee must be considered. Color, race, sex, nationality and religion can not be factors in any way. The person most qualified must be hired. Promotions fall under Title VII, too, including the transferring of managers to different stores.

Black managers and black pharmacists employed by Walgreen can give you inside information on that subject. A recent discrimination suit against Walgreen, the largest drugstore chain in America, charged that African Americans were being promoted only to stores in African American dominated neighborhoods. Not only were the moves limiting for the managers, and pharmacists, but many of the stores were “underperformers” which placed a cap on those managers’ potential earnings.

Originally charging stores in Tampa, St. Louis, Kansas City and Detroit, the suit grew quickly, picking up over 10,000 former and current Walgreen employees. A class action suit resulted. Opting not to go to trial, which could take months and cost the company a great deal of money, Walgreen settled out of court.

Those 10,000 plus employees received $20 million.

Title VII offers additional protections to employees in the workplace. Job training, pay, classification, and other aspects of working a job are protected. Benefits, too, such as taking time off, health insurance and discounts, must be assigned and/or dispersed without consideration of race, color, sex, religion or nationality.

Protections similar to those offered by Title VII are provided to sub-contractors and contractors on federal projects by Executive Order 11246. Equal employment opportunities for those employees are ensured under the Executive Order via affirmative action. JH