How much does training cost? A lot less than a lawsuit!
Ever wonder which is less expensive, facing litigation or training your managers in good practices that help your company avoid employee lawsuits? Take a look at some of these recent big money suits against companies.
To find out more about our national training programs, or to book training for your organization, please call 800-458-2778 or email training@fairmeasures.com.
Fair Measures reports only settlements and final judgments - never jury verdicts.
Posted 02-10-2010
Staples, Inc., has reached a global settlement in several wage and hour class action lawsuits. Under the terms of the global settlement, which is subject to court approval, the office supplies merchant has agreed to drop its appeal of a verdict against it last year in New Jersey and to pay $42 million to resolve claims for damages dating back as far as 2002 and covering more than 5,500 current and former employees.
The U.S. Department of Labor will recover more than $1.8 million in back wages and fringe benefits for more than 500 employees of MT Transportation & Logistics Services, Inc., a New York trucking company. Because of the its labor law violations, the company is losing its contract with the United States Postal Service to haul mail and will be debarred from receiving future government contracts for a three-year period.
Arapahoe Motors, Inc., doing business as Ralph Schomp Automotive, has agreed to pay more than $1.5 million to settle a sex and age discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC. "Sexual harassment and sex discrimination against women in traditionally male-dominated industries, such as the auto industry, are still unfortunate realities," said EEOC Acting Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru. "Likewise, older workers continue to experience age discrimination, despite their experience, productivity and qualifications. Employers should remember that the EEOC is here to find and fight this kind of unlawful mistreatment."
Supermarket chain Albertsons has agreed to pay $8.9 million to settle three Colorado lawsuits in which the EEOC alleged that it had engaged in race, color, and national origin discrimination, as well as retaliation. According to the EEOC, close to 200 employees were subjected to racist and anti-Semitic derogatory epithets, slurs, and graffiti. Allegedly, supervisors were aware of and even participated in the harassing conduct. One African-American employee, whose leg was broken by a piece of equipment at work, was allegedly left lying on the warehouse floor for thirty minutes by a white supervisor who told him that was what he got for being black. Albertsons denied that it had engaged in discrimination or harassment.
Employers who suspect or know about harassing behaviors in the workplace must act promptly to stop them, and should train all employees regarding compliance with equal employment opportunity laws in order to avoid liability. Call us at 831-458-0500 to book a Respectful Workplace class for your company.
Posted 01-12-2010
Outback Steakhouse has agreed to pay $19 million to settle a major class action lawsuit alleging sex discrimination against thousands of women at hundreds of its corporately-owned restaurants nationwide.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to pay $40 million to 87,500 Massachusetts employees who claimed the retailer denied them rest and meals breaks, manipulated time cards and refused to pay overtime. The settlement comes less than three months after the world's largest retailer reached a deal with state prosecutors to pay $3 million to settle complaints that it didn't give its Massachusetts workers proper meal breaks.
A $9.3 million settlement of an overtime pay class action lawsuit against BJ's Wholesale Club Inc. has been reached. The settlement, which is subject to Court approval, is intended to resolve claims that BJ's misclassified certain management employees as exempt from overtime. The employees claim that they were misclassified because their primary responsibilities included hourly duties such as loading and unloading materials, stocking shelves, and other activities which are not exempt under federal and state overtime laws.
An age discrimination class action suit of more than 200 miners against Massey Energy and its subsidiary Spartan Mining Co., was settled for $8.75 million.
Posted 12-03-2009
OSHA issued a record-setting $87.43 million in penalties to BP Products North America, Inc. As you may remember reading in our June, 2007 eNews, safety violations at BP's Texas City, TX, refinery resulted in a massive explosion, killing 15 people and injuring another 170. BP's cost-based decision to replace live trainers with computer-led training was a substantial contributing cause of the disaster. BP entered into a settlement agreement with OSHA, under which the company agreed to eliminate potential hazards similar to those that caused the tragedy. An inspection recently concluded by OSHA revealed that not only did the company fail to correct hundreds of violations cited in the settlement agreement, but it also committed hundreds of new violations.
A case of bad-faith bargaining involving five southeastern Michigan beer distributors (Don Lee Distributors Inc., Powers Distributing Co., Eastown Distributors Co., Oak Distributing Co. and Hubert Distributors) and their union employees has finally concluded after more than a decade. More than 2,000 workers will share $41 million in back pay. According to the National Labor Relations Board, it is one of the biggest back pay awards the agency has ever ordered.
Lawry's Restaurants, Inc., which operates restaurants in Las Vegas, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and Corona del Mar, CA, will pay $1,025,000 for refusing to hire men as waiters. In investigating the case, the EEOC found that Lawry's policy barring men, allegedly on the basis of "tradition", had existed since 1938, despite the enactment of federal non-discrimination law a quarter century later. As part of the settlement, Lawry's will train all of its employees on discrimination and harassment law.
Posted 11-17-2009
Dominion Correctional Services, LLC and Corrections Corporation of America, will pay $1.3 million to 21 female former workers who were allegedly subjected to quid pro quo sexual harassment, a hostile work environment, and retaliation at an all-male, privately run medium security prison in Colorado. According to the EEOC, female employees at the prison were raped, forced to perform oral sex on managers in order to keep their jobs, groped, and subjected to pervasive pornography, lewd jokes, and sexual talk on the job.
A jury verdict awarding a female Wal-Mart pharmacist $972,774 in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages for unequal pay and sex discrimination was upheld by Massachusetts' highest court. Haddad v. Wal-Mart, 455 Mass. 91 (10/5/2009)
The largest Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) settlement in a single lawsuit in EEOC history will be paid by Sears, Roebuck and Co. and totals $6.2 million. The EEOC's suit alleged that Sears fired employees who had exhausted their workers' compensation leave instead of providing them with reasonable accommodations for their disabilities. In addition to the payment, Sears will amend its workers' compensation leave policy, provide written reports to the EEOC detailing its workers' compensation practices' compliance with the ADA, train its employees regarding the ADA, and post a notice of the decree at all Sears locations.
Posted 10-14-2009
Gerber Products Co. will pay
$900,000 for hiring discrimination against 1,912 rejected entry-level minority and female applicants. Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program investigators found that Gerber had inconsistent selection procedures and used pre-employment tests that screened out minority applicants without a good business reason. Gerber will not only pay the rejected applicants $900,000 in back pay and interest, but will also create 61 entry-level jobs, and has agreed to stop using the challenged test for entry-level positions.
Allstate Insurance Company will pay $4,500,000 to settle an age discrimination class action by approximately 90 older former employees. The EEOC settlement also calls for discrimination prevention training, posting of notices, and other steps designed to educate Allstate managers in order to prevent future violations of the law. In 2007 Allstate paid $250,000 to settle a related suit brought by two other workers in the same age bracket.
A $35 million dollar settlement has been agreed on between Wal-Mart and its workers in Washington state, bringing to an end eight years of litigation over alleged missed meal and rest breaks and additional, unpaid hours of work. The suit alleged that Wal-Mart would lock its employees in the store at the end of the day after they had clocked off, and have them work an additional 30 minutes.
A carwash chain that repeatedly violated wage and hour laws will pay $3.4 million to settle a suit claiming that the company did not pay overtime, did not pay minimum wage and did not keep proper employment records. Lage Management Corporation, which owns a number of car washes in the New York City area, has already paid more than $1.3 million to workers in 3 previous settlements.
Posted 09-09-2009
EEOC and Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, Inc. have entered into a consent decree for $1.72 million on behalf of three employees in their twenties who were subjected to a pervasive sexually hostile work environment and retaliated against for complaining about it. The former employees, two young men and one woman, were subjected to widespread and repeated sexual harassment by male and female managers and coworkers, including physical and verbal abuse which culminated in one instance of sexual assault. EEOC asserted that Lowe's not only failed to take prompt remedial action to stop the sexual harassment, but also fired the three victims in the case.
In addition to the $1.7 million, the three-year consent decree requires Lowe's to provide comprehensive training to management, non-management, and human resources employees. Employees will be trained on what constitutes harassment and retaliation, and on their obligation not to harass or retaliate against anyone. Managers and supervisors will be trained on what constitutes harassment and retaliation, their obligation to provide a discrimination-free work environment, and their responsibilities if an employee complains about harassment or retaliation, or if they observe it. Human resources personnel will be trained on what constitutes harassment and retaliation, how to institute policies and practices to correct past discrimination and prevent future occurrences, informing complainants about the outcome of internal investigations, and the steps Lowe's will take to assure a discrimination-free workplace in the future.
At AT&T, two male customer service technicians who were suspended and fired for attending a Jehovah's Witnesses Convention were paid $1,307,597. At trial, the jury awarded the two former employees $296,000 in back pay and $460,000 in compensatory damage, and the judge ordered that they be reinstated and paid front pay until the date of reinstatement. AT&T appealed, and lost. The clock kept running on front pay and post-judgment interest during the appeal, so the final payment was almost double the original damages,
A former executive at iFreedom Communications Inc., who brought a wrongful termination claim was awarded more than $4.1 billion in arbitration. The Los Angeles Superior Court affirmed the arbitration award and post-judgment interest is running at $1.125 million per day!
Posted 08-12-2009
A federal judge in Arkansas has given final approval for Wal-Mart's plan to pay $17.5 million to settle a race discrimination lawsuit brought by black applicants rejected for truck driver positions. In addition to the monetary award, Wal-Mart agreed to, among other things, set benchmark hiring goals, hire a diversity recruiter at its transportation department, provide training to employees involved in hiring and recruitment, and submit to monitoring and reporting of its compliance with the settlement terms for four years.
A preliminary settlement has been reached between Dell and former employees who brought a class action against the computer company, alleging a pattern of discrimination against women in awarding compensation and promotions. The settlement is for a reported $9.1 million.
Eastman Kodak Co. will pay $21.4 million to settle two race discrimination class action suits accusing the company of racially discriminatory practices in pay and promotions.
A 15-year federal false claims lawsuit against Healthways, Inc. has been settled for almost $40 million in damages and fees to the U.S. government and the whistleblower. The case began in June 1994, when A. Scott Pogue, who had recently been fired from his job as a marketing representative for a Healthways subsidiary, charged that Healthways was violating the Anti-Kickback Statute by paying kickbacks to more than 200 doctors in exchange for referring their patients to the subsidiary's hospital customers around the U.S. Mr. Pogue will receive between 25 and 30 percent of the government's recovery for his involvement, and Healthways, Inc. will pay the $12 million in attorney and litigation fees he accumulated throughout the suit.
Posted 07-08-2009
Schott North America, a multinational developer and manufacturer of glass specialty materials, has agreed to pay $1.45 million to settle a class action alleging that Schott laid off women because of their gender after a company reorganization. In addition to the $1.45 million in monetary relief, the three-year consent decree also requires annual anti-discrimination training of all supervisors and managers.
B & H Foto and Electronics Corp., one of the largest retail sellers of photographic, computer and electronic equipment in the New York metropolitan area, will pay $4.3 million to 149 employees who were paid less, not promoted, or denied benefits because they are Hispanic. In addition to the multi-million dollar settlement fund, the consent decree requires B & H to conduct employee training and to be monitored by the EEOC for the following five years.
Dawn Sands, former vice-president and executive general counsel of Menards Inc., a Midwestern home improvement chain, was awarded $1.5 million in back pay and damages for gender discrimination and retaliation, and rehired at a higher salary under an arbitration award. Menards appealed the arbitration award, but the Wisconsin Third District Court ruled against Menards and not only upheld the arbitration award, but also found Menards in contempt for not rehiring Ms. Sands and scheduled another hearing to determine additional damages.
Posted 06-03-2009
A settlement of $39 million was approved in May, 2009 by a federal judge in a class action lawsuit involving some 10,000 stock brokers who allege they were not compensated for overtime and paid other wages owed them by Wachovia Corp.
Wal-Mart agreed to pay nearly $2 million and improve safety at its 92 New York stores as part of a deal with prosecutors that will avoid criminal charges in the trampling death of a temporary worker last November. The employee had been on the job for about a week when a Thanksgiving weekend shopping crowd estimated at 2,000 broke down the Valley Stream, N.Y., store's doors, trapping him in a vestibule. The employee died of asphyxiation, and eleven customers, including a pregnant woman, were injured.
Two janitorial companies, Excell Cleaning and Building Services Inc. and M.O. Restaurant Cleaning of California Inc., evaded payroll taxes and failed to pay minimum wage and overtime for approximately 300 California janitorial workers. The California Labor Commissioner and Attorney General assessed penalties of more than $13 million, consisting of wages owed, penalties for wage violations, penalties for unfair business practice violations and liquidated damages.
Posted 05-13-2009
OSHA has ordered Southern Air Inc., to withdraw a lawsuit it filed against nine former employees and pay them more than $7.9 million in wages, damages and legal fees. Southern Air had filed a defamation lawsuit against the former employees in May 2008 after they raised safety concerns with Southern Air, OSHA and the FAA. The workers, all former flight crew members, then filed a whistleblower complaint with OSHA, which determined that the company's lawsuit was filed in retaliation for the workers' safety complaints.
Quest Diagnostics Inc. has agreed to pay $302 million to resolve criminal and civil claims over diagnostic test kits which allegedly provided inaccurate and unreliable results to kidney dialysis patients. The whistleblower who brought the matter to the Justice Department's attention will receive more than $45 million for his role in exposing the test kit problem.
In another whistleblower case, defense contractor Northrop Grumman is paying a $325 million settlement to resolve claims that it sold the National Reconnaissance Office defective microelectric parts and concealed product test results. The whistleblower's share is $48.75 million.
Posted 04-09-2009
OSHA has cited St. Louis company G.S. Robins & Co., for alleged serious, repeat violations of federal workplace safety standards, proposing more than $1.2 million in penalties. OSHA began an inspection at the site upon learning that employees had been admitted to several local hospitals after being exposed to a chemical that reduces the blood's ability to transport oxygen. (All the workers recovered after treatment.)
Approximately 550 workers will receive nearly $1.5 million, primarily in unpaid overtime wages, from New York City's Amish Market and its related stores. "These stores market themselves as 'the answer to busy people's dilemma,'" said NY labor commissioner M. Patricia Smith. "But while busy patrons bought gourmet meals, busy workers were working up to 60 hours per week without being paid overtime."
A federal appeals court in Boston upheld a $1.3 million verdict in favor of an employee with bipolar disorder who claimed that his former employer, Liberty Mutual Insurance, had failed to accommodate his disability. The appellate panel sent the case back to the trial court to calculate how much in trial and appellate attorneys' fees to add to the jury's award.
Leading ATM and cash register maker NCR Corp. will be paying $12 million to settle two class action lawsuits brought by California and Illinois employees who claimed they were forced to work "off-the-clock" and through breaks and lunch periods.
Posted 03-11-2009
Pitt Ohio Express will pay $2.43 million to settle a sex discrimination class action lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Pitt Ohio will also offer jobs to women who had been denied them, and will provide anti-discrimination training to its managers.
LA Weight Loss Centers, Inc. (renamed Pure Weight Loss, Inc., in early 2007) has agreed to a sex discrimination settlement of $20 million. The settlement funds will be paid to men who were not hired because of their gender. The consent decree also requires hiring of rejected male applicants and includes numerical benchmarks for hiring and/or promoting men to the positions from which they had been previously excluded.
Posted 02-11-2009
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. has agreed to pay $800 million in civil and $600 million in criminal fines in the largest whistleblower settlement in U.S. history. The case centered around allegations that the company was aggressively marketing Zyprexa, an anti-psychotic drug, to pediatricians at nursing homes and to others who did not need it in order to boost flagging sales. All six whistleblowers had complained to management and were fired or pressured to quit, according to papers filed in the case.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, will pay between $352 million and $640 million to settle 63 wage-and-hour abuse lawsuits in courts around the country.
The uniform company Cintas will pay almost $3 million in penalties to resolve six cases currently pending before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, one of which arose from OSHA's investigation of a fatal accident in which an employee fell into a dryer while attempting to correct a jammed conveyor.
Merrill Lynch has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a discrimination lawsuit by an Iranian Muslim former worker who was fired due to his religion and national origin.
Posted 01-14-2009
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. will pay up to $54.25 million to settle a Minnesota class action lawsuit. The trial judge found that over a 10-year period the retail giant violated state labor laws 2 million times by cutting worker break time and allowing employees to work off the clock.
$35.5 million judgment against Family Dollar Stores upheld on appeal. In a class action, store managers were found to have been willfully denied overtime pay. Where store managers were shown to spend 80 to 90% of their time performing nonexempt, manual labor, the jury reasonably concluded that their primary duty was not management.
How much does training cost? A lot less than a lawsuit!
To find out more about our national training programs, or to book training for your organization, please call 800-458-2778 or email training@fairmeasures.com.
