Employment Law Case Pertaining to Race

#Employment Law Case Pertaining to Race

Title VII's prohibitions apply regardless of whether the discrimination is directed at Whites, Blacks, Asians, Latinos, Arabs, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, multi-racial individuals, or person of any other race, color, or ethnicity.

A federal judge awarded 17 white police officers from Milwaukee Police Department $2.2 million in compensatory and punitive damages and an additional $1.5 million to compensate for loss of higher salaries they would have earned had they been promoted fairly. The jury found that Chief Jones, who is an African American, discriminated based on race when he did not promote the white officers to the rank of captain. In April 2005, the jury found that the group as a whole was passed over for promotions 144 times in favor of less qualified minority candidates.

Since the trial, Milwaukee's employment environment has altered. The current Police Chief Nannette Hegerty has promoted several of the plaintiffs to captain and the others retired or received lower damage awards. Others remained lieutenants and have dropped their initial demands for promotions. During the trial, Jones the previous chief testified "openings for captains weren't posted, that there were no specific criteria for the job-not specialized training or minimum experience - and no interview process" reported by, Milwaukee News. The system was in place before Jones became chief. Jones denied discriminating against anyone and he pointed out that more than half of his promotions to captain were white men.

Reference

Barton, G. (2005, August 30, 2005). Discriminaitn award increases. Retrieved April 23, 2005, from http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id