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. Fair Measures reports only settlements and final judgments - never jury verdicts.
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Posted 11-9-2011
A federal class action lawsuit has been settled, in part, by Albany Medical Center, which has agreed to pay $4.5 million to settle its share of the suit. The antitrust suit was brought by 4,000 registered nurses who alleged that officials conspired with counterparts at other local hospitals to ensure pay levels did not increase.
A $7 million settlement has been reached by current and past employees of the Cranwell Resort, Spa, & Golf Club in Lenox, MA, ending a class-action lawsuit that alleged the resort's management illegally withheld tips from approximately 700 food, beverage, and spa employees.
New United Motors & Manufacturing, Inc., California's last auto plant, has agreed to contribute to a $6 million settlement fund to resolve complaints that the company violated federal law when it denied severance benefits to employees on medical leave.
Posted 10-18-2011
Global technology giant 3M has agreed to pay $3 million to former employees and implement preventive measures to resolve a nationwide age discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC's suit charged that 3M unlawfully laid off hundreds of employees over the age of 45 during a series of reductions in force. In addition to the monetary settlement, 3M has agreed to implement a review process for termination decisions and training on how to prevent age bias.
Tyson Fresh Meats, the world's largest supplier of premium beef and pork and a leading contractor with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Agriculture, will pay a total of $2.25 million to settle two sex discrimination cases alleging that hundreds of female job applicants were denied entry level jobs at processing plants in the Midwest. Settlement of these cases, brought by the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, will enable the company to preserve its federal contractor status.
Nationwide restaurant chain Denny's, Inc. will pay $1.3 million to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC. The suit charged that Denny's refused to provide one of its restaurant managers in Baltimore with reasonable accommodations for her leg amputation, prohibited her from returning to work, and then fired her because of her disability. The suit further charged that Denny's denied reasonable accommodations and unlawfully terminated 33 additional workers with disabilities. The consent decree settling the suit also requires all corporate-operated Denny's to provide anti-discrimination training, with emphasis on the ADA and disability discrimination.
Posted 09-23-2011
An Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar franchise will pay $1 million in compensatory damages to 17 female former employees who were subjected to a manager's sexual harassment and retaliation during their employment. The manager allegedly regularly groped female employees, solicited sexual relations, coerced an employee into giving him oral sex in exchange for a raise, and exposed himself. He also allegedly exposed employees to pornography, told sexually explicit stories and jokes and made highly personalized sexual comments designed to demean and humiliate female employees. Despite repeated complaints by employees and, on occasion, customers, Applebee's failed to stop the manager's bad behavior. As part of the settlement, the restaurant is also required to implement a comprehensive training program to enable its employees to identify sexual harassment and properly investigate internal complaints.
U.S. Security Associates, Inc. (USSA), a national security guard service based in Atlanta, has agreed to pay $1.95 million to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit. According to the complaint filed in court, a district manager for USSA in Birmingham, Ala., sexually harassed female employees by subjecting them to unwelcome sexual demands, demeaning gestures, inappropriate touching and other sexually offensive conduct. As part of the settlement, USSA agreed to revise its policies and complaint procedures to appropriately address sexual harassment and retaliation, and to train all staff on anti-harassment procedures, and to hold supervisors and managers accountable for eliminating such misconduct in the workplace. The same manager and USSA had already been found liable in a related sexual harassment case, where a female employee obtained a jury verdict of $2.7 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
A federal judge has affirmed a $1.1million judgment against Whirlpool Corporation in a sexual and racial harassment lawsuit. Carlotta Freeman, a African-American employee at a Whirlpool plant in Tennessee, was harassed by a white male co-worker because of her race and sex. During the four-day trial, the court heard evidence that Ms. Freeman reported escalating offensive verbal conduct and gestures by the co-worker over a period of two months before he physically assaulted her on the factory floor. Not only did the harasser push her into the moving assembly line causing her to be struck in the head by air conditioners moving down the line, but he then threw a steel valve at Ms. Freeman and the co-worker who had rescued her from the moving line. Four levels of Whirlpool's management were aware of the escalating harassment, but the company failed to take effective steps to stop it.
Posted 08-26-2011
Dick's Sporting Goods, the largest publicly traded US sporting goods retailer, has agreed to a $15 million settlement that will end a series of class action lawsuits claiming unpaid overtime and wages in 36 states.
Maryland's Prince George's County Public Schools will pay more than $4.2 million in back wages due 1,044 workers to resolve violations of the H-1B temporary foreign worker visa program. Due to the willful nature of some of the violations, the school district also has agreed to pay $100,000 in civil money penalties and to be debarred for two years from filing new visa petitions, requests for extensions, or requests for permanent residency for foreign workers under any employment-based visa program.
Sonic Drive-In of Los Lunas, Ltd. and B&B Consultants, owners of a Sonic restaurant in Los Lunas, N.M., have agreed to settle a sex discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for $2 million. In addition to financial settlement, Sonic has agreed to revise its policies and practices, and to provide all employees with anti-discrimination training.
Cavalier Telephone Company Inc. will pay $1 million to settle an age discrimination lawsuit. According to the EEOC's suit, the company's mid-Atlantic region had a practice of not hiring applicants age 40 or older for sales positions. The EEOC charged that Cavalier indicated both verbally and in writing that the company was looking for candidates who were "recent college graduates," and in their "early 20s or 30s." Cavalier offered its employees a $500 bonus for referral of a "friend's younger brother and sister." The settlement also requires Cavalier to offer jobs to qualified applicants age 40 or older whom it had rejected, and to provide training to staff.
Posted 07-13-2011
In the largest ADA settlement in EEOC history, telecommunications giant Verizon Communications will pay $20 million to resolve a nationwide class action disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The settlement also requires the company to revise its attendance plans, policies and ADA policy to include reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities, and to provide mandatory periodic training on the ADA to employees responsible for administering Verizon's attendance plans.
A federal judge in Washington has approved a $32 million settlement of a class action brought against Wells Fargo Advisors by a group of women who alleged gender discrimination. Under the terms of the settlement, Wells Fargo Advisors will also implement policies and practices designed to reduce gender discrimination and improve the working experience of its female financial advisors.
You don't think class actions are sexy? Well, they can be! A class action involving 11,000 exotic dancers in California and other states has been settled for $10 million. The suit claimed that the performers, who provide live nude and semi-nude dance entertainment were not paid minimum wage and were forced to split their tips to pay for "stage fees" and compensate other nightclub employees such as managers, doormen, and disc jockeys.
Electronics retailer Best Buy has settled a racial, gender, and national origin discrimination class action brought on behalf of women and minority employees. The settlement remains subject to court approval. In addition to paying a total of $200,000 to the nine named plaintiffs plus as much as $10 million for legal fees and costs, the company has agreed to sweeping changes to its personnel policies and procedures, designed to enhance the equal employment opportunities of women, African Americans, and Latinos.
Posted 06-08-2011
Quest Diagnostics will pay $241 million to settle a suit charging the laboratory with overbilling California state medical patients, in the largest award ever under the state's False Claims Act, which allows private citizens to sue on behalf of the state if they have evidence that a government contractor has defrauded a state agency. The whistle-blower, Chris Riedel and his company, Hunter Laboratories, alleged that the unfair business practices of Quest and other labs were pushing them out of the market.
Lexmark will be paying $8.3 million in compensation to employees in California as settlement of the class action lawsuit they brought over the company's "use it or lose it" vacation policy. The judge ruled that the 178 employees in the class-action suit should be compensated for the vacation time and personal time they did not use before they were terminated.
A federal judge in Illinois has ordered the owner and manager of the El Matador and El Caporal restaurants to personally pay more than $1.1 million in back wages and damages to 64 workers employed as servers and kitchen staff. The judgment against the two individuals resolves a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor following an investigation by its Wage and Hour Division that disclosed willful violations of the minimum wage, overtime pay and record-keeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act at three locations.
Posted 05-11-2011
Freight services provider Vitran Express has agreed to pay $2.6 million to settle a class action suit against it for alleged violations of employee privacy rights. The lawsuit alleged that the company secretly obtained criminal background checks on applicants without their knowledge or consent.
An accountant who tipped off the IRS that his employer was skimping on taxes has received $4.5 million in the first IRS whistleblower award. The accountant's tip netted the IRS $20 million in taxes and interest from the errant Fortune 500 Company. The award represents a 22% cut of the taxes recovered. The whistleblower program, designed to encourage tips in large-scale cases, mandates awards of 15% to 30% of the amount recouped.
Levi Strauss & Co. has agreed to pay more than $1 million in back wages to 596 retail employees nationwide. The company had failed to record all hours employees worked in its payroll system, requiring some employees to work off-the-clock during late night closings, early morning openings and staffing shortages. The company also had misclassified employees in administrative offices as exempt from minimum wage and overtime requirements.
Posted 04-06-2011
CEMEX Inc, the nation's largest supplier of cement and ready-mix concrete, will pay more than $1.5 million to resolve claims for overtime back wages owed to current and former employees in eight different states. Pursuant to the settlement agreement, CEMEX must also comply with federal wage and hour laws, or run the risk of being found in contempt.
John D. Archbold Memorial Hospital Inc in Thomasville, Georgia has paid the federal government a total of $13.9 million to settle allegations that the hospital submitted false claims to the state of Georgia's Medicaid program. As part of the settlement, the whistleblower will receive $695,151.
Checks are now being distributed to 82 victims of sexual harassment as part of an $8 million consent decree entered in one of the longest-running sexual harassment cases in the history of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The checks are being issued by International Profit Associates, a telemarketer of small business consulting packages, located in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. IPA made initial payments totaling $2.5 million in March, 2011, and will pay the balance in installments over three years. That $5.5 million balance is being personally guaranteed by the chief executive of IPA, who has secured his personal guaranty by signing mortgages on some of his personal real estate.
Posted 03-16-2011
The Green Bay Packers are the 2011 Super Bowl champions, but federal contractor Green Bay Dressed Beef LLC is a big loser. The company will pay $1.65 million in back wages, interest and benefits to settle a sex discrimination charge brought following a compliance review by the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). OFCCP found that women were rejected for general laborer positions at the company's Green Bay plant. In addition to financial compensation, the beef supplier will extend a total of 248 offers of employment to affected women as positions become available.
The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered nearly $1 million in overtime back wages for employees of UnitedHealthcare after an investigation by the department's Wage and Hour Division determined that the employees had been incorrectly classified as exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act. The health insurance giant will also pay more than $100,000 in civil penalties.
Supermarket giants SUPERVALU INC., American Drug Stores LLC, and Jewel Food Stores, Inc. (collectively referred to as "Jewel-Osco") have settled a disability discrimination class action with the EEOC, paying $3.2 million to 110 individuals who were denied reasonable accommodations. Jewel-Osco will also train its employees on the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Posted 02-09-2011
Akal Security Inc., has agreed to pay a $1.62 million settlement to 26 female security guards who alleged they had been discriminated against, retaliated against, and discharged because of pregnancy.
Total Enterprise, Inc. has paid nearly $1.4 million in back wages and fringe benefits to 140 employees. The employer had a contract with the Transportation Security Administration to provide bus service for TSA employees to the remote parking lot at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, but failed to properly pay its drivers, dispatchers and parking lot attendants.
Defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin has entered into a $2 million settlement with the U.S. government to resolve False Claims Act claims in a whistleblower suit alleging a bid-rigging scheme. The whistleblower will receive $560,000 as his share of the recovery.
Posted 01-12-2011
In the largest employment law settlement of 2010, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. will be paying $175 million to resolve a gender discrimination class action. The settlement benefits a class of more than 6,000 female current and former sales representatives who alleged systemic discrimination in pay, promotions, and other working conditions at Norvartis. The consent decree calls for payment of $152.5 million in back wages, benefits, and adjusted wages, incentive payments to the named plaintiffs who helped litigate the case, and attorneys' fees of $38.1 million and litigation costs of $2 million, plus $22.5 million in non-monetary relief representing Novartis' commitments to enhance its employment policies to eliminate sex discrimination.
Four student aid lenders, Nelnet Inc. and Nelnet Educational Loan Funding Inc., Southwest Student Services Corp., Brazos Higher Education Authority and Brazos Higher Education Service Corp. and Panhandle Plains Higher Education Authority and Panhandle Plains Management and Servicing Corp. have paid the United States a total of $57.75 million to resolve allegations that they improperly inflated their entitlement to certain interest rate subsidies from the US Department of Education, in violation of the False Claims Act. The whistleblower suit was filed by Dr. Jonathan Oberg, a former employee of the Department of Education, who will receive a total of $16.65 million from the four settlements.
Verizon Communications, Inc. has settled a California Family Rights Act class action lawsuit with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing for $6 million. The suit alleged that between 2007 and 2010 Verizon denied or failed to timely approve requests for leave for employees' own serious health condition, to care for a family member with a serious health condition, or to bond with a new child. The suit was brought under California's state law, which is very similar to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. Verizon also agreed to review and revise its leave policies and procedures, and to train all California managers, supervisors and human resource personnel on legally compliant CFRA procedures.
Posted 12-08-2010
GlaxoSmithKline PLC has settled for $750 million a False Claims Act case stemming from allegations that the company manufactured and distributed defective and adulterated drugs from its now-closed manufacturing facility located in Puerto Rico. The whistleblower, Cheryl D. Eckard worked as the company's quality manager, and after reporting the contamination problems to several GSK executives, she was terminated. Ms. Eckard will receive 22 percent share of the federal settlement amount, which comes to more than $96 million.
A wage and hour class-action suit against Wal-Mart was settled for a total of $86 million to resolve the claims of more than 200,000 workers at California Wal-Marts, Sam's Clubs and distribution centers. The workers alleged that they had been underpaid for vacation and other wages when their employment with Wal-Mart ended.
A California appeals court has affirmed an arbitration award against an employee who delayed the launch of a new product so he could deflect customers to his own new company. The defalcating employee was ordered to pay his former employer $12.3 million in lost income, as well as $6.7 million in legal fees, costs and interest. Oaktree Capital Management v. Bernard, 182 Cal. App. 4th 60 (Ct. App. 2010)
Posted 11-10-2010
Office-supply merchant Staples Inc. has agreed to a $42 million settlement of a class action alleging it failed to pay overtime to 5,500 assistant managers. The managers had been classified as overtime-exempt even though most of their work hours were spent on unloading trucks, stocking shelves and running cash registers.
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation has agreed to pay $422.5 million to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from the illegal marketing of certain pharmaceutical products, the Justice Department announced. In addition to a $185 million criminal fine, Novartis will be paying $237.5 million to resolve civil allegations under the False Claims Act that the company submitted false claims to government health care programs. As part of the settlement, the whistleblowers, all former employees of Novartis, will receive payments totaling more than $25 million from the federal share of the civil recovery.
Republic Services, Inc. will pay nearly $3 million to settle an age discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). According to the EEOC, Republic terminated and denied job transfer opportunities to about 21 employees, ranging from garbage collectors to supervisors, because of their age. Some of the terminated employees had been at the company for more than 25 years. In addition to the monetary settlement, Republic also agreed to provide anti-discrimination training to all employees.
Posted 10-16-2010
Trucking giants Roadway Express and YRC, Inc. will pay $10 million to settle claims of race discrimination against African-Americans at their Chicago-area facilities. According to the EEOC, more than 300 black employees were subjected to multiple incidents of hangman's nooses, racist graffiti, racist comments, and racist cartoons, were given harsher discipline and scrutiny than their white counterparts, and were assigned more difficult and time-consuming work than white employees.
California-based apparel retailer Zumiez Inc. has settled a class action overtime lawsuit in California for $2.1 million.
GeoPharma Inc. in Largo, Fla., has agreed to pay nearly $1.4 million in back wages to 187 employees for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The pharmaceutical manufacturer missed or was in arrears for 14 payroll periods from late 2009 through 2010.
The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, two of its member hospitals (The Fort Hamilton Hospital and The University Hospital), and University Internal Medicine Associates Inc. will pay the federal government $2.6 million to settle claims alleging that they violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act by engaging in a kickback-for-referral scheme. The allegations resolved by the settlement were initiated by a whistleblower lawsuit filed under the False Claims Act; the whistleblower, Dr. Deborah Hauger, a cardiologist who formerly worked at The Fort Hamilton Hospital, will receive $468,000 as her share of the recovery.
Tyson Foods, Inc. will be paying more than $1.1 million to an assembly-line worker who was barraged by sexual harassment during her 5 weeks on the job. According to a federal appeals court, not only was Amanda West subjected to numerous unwelcome sexual comments, but the comments escalated to unwanted touching, grabbing, and kissing, and management did nothing about her complaints.
Posted 09-16-2010
ABM Industries, Inc., along with two subsidiaries, ABM Janitorial Services, Inc. and ABM Janitorial Services Northern California, Inc. will pay $5.8 million to 21 Hispanic female janitorial workers, settling an egregious sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the EEOC. According to the EEOC, the 21 women were victims of varying degrees of unwelcome touching, sexual assault, explicit sexual comments and requests for sex by 14 male co-workers and supervisors. Making matters worse, ABM failed to respond to the employees' repeated complaints of harassment. In addition to nearly $6 million payment, the consent decree settling the suit requires ABM, a Fortune 1000 provider of commercial cleaning services, to provide anti-harassment training to its employees in both English and Spanish, including a video message from the chief executive officer emphasizing zero tolerance for harassment and retaliation.
Elmer W. Davis, Inc., one of the largest commercial roofing contractors in the United States, will pay $1 million to African-American employees to settle a race discrimination lawsuit. The suit charged that black employees were subjected to a pattern of race discrimination, including harassment, unfair work assignments, failure to be promoted, and retaliation for complaining about discrimination from at least 1993 through the present. According to dozens of African-American employees, they were constantly subjected to racial slurs by their white foremen, exposed to nooses and racially offensive graffiti, given the most difficult, dirty and less desirable jobs, and were routinely laid off first at the end of the roofing season and called back last in the beginning of the following season.
Lockheed Martin has settled a wage and hour class action brought by nearly 300 current and former security guards employed at five of the company's California plants. The company will pay $1.55 million to resolve claims that it denied the guards meal periods and other breaks required under state law.
A federal appeals court has affirmed $2 million jury verdict, including $1.2 million in punitive damages, against TRW in an age discrimination case brought by a 62-year-old test engineer laid off after 20 years on the job.
Posted 08-04-2010
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp has settled a class action suit brought by female sales representatives who alleged they were discriminated against in pay, promotional opportunities, and pregnancy-related matters. The company will pay up to $152.5 million in damages to the sales reps, as well as $40 million to their attorneys, and, over the next three years, will spend another $22.5 million on anti-harassment training and other company programs to eliminate discrimination. The settlement came shortly after a New York City federal jury had awarded the sales reps $3.4 million in compensatory damages plus $250 million in punitive damages. When final, the settlement agreement will replace the jury verdicts.
Defense contractor Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. will pay $12.5 million to settle a lawsuit with the U.S. government alleging that the company failed to test electronic components used in military equipment as well as in outer space. The Northrop engineer who blew the whistle will receive $2.4 million of the settlement funds.
Charter Communications has agreed to pay $18 million to settle an overtime and back pay class action lawsuit brought by 8,000 current and former field technicians.
Posted 07-07-2010
Wal-Mart has agreed to settle yet another class action, this time paying a $4 million to resolve an Oregon wage and hour case.
Les Schwab Tire Centers and a related company have agreed to settle a Seattle sex discrimination case for $2 million. In the suit, the EEOC claimed that Les Schwab had failed to hire qualified women for tire changing jobs at its stores in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Utah. In addition to the monetary amount, the company agreed to provide anti-discrimination training for all its managers, assistant managers and employees about federal discrimination law.
Shipping giant UPS has agreed to pay $12.8 million to settle a class action lawsuit over the company's misclassification of delivery drivers as independent contractors rather than employees. The drivers claimed they were wrongfully classified as independent contractors rather than regular UPS employees, and as a result, were denied, among other things, minimum wage and overtime payments.
Posted 06-09-2010
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. agreed to pay as much as $86 million to settle a class-action lawsuit claiming it failed to provide vacation and other wages owed to thousands of California employees. About 232,000 former employees in California will share in the settlement, according to court filings.
Mohawk Industries, Inc. has agreed to pay $18 million to settle a racketeering lawsuit brought by employees who alleged that the carpet maker knowingly hired illegal immigrants as part of a scheme to keep wages down. Approximately 48,000 current and former Mohawk employees will share in the settlement. Mohawk, which did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement, also agreed to train employees about employment verification measures required under state and federal law.
Teleperformance USA, a Salt Lake City-based call center which provides over-the-telephone customer service for clients including Sprint Communications, Verizon Wireless and Dell Computers, has paid nearly $2 million in back wages to 15,862 workers for overtime pay violations. The settlement followed a nationwide investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.
Posted 05-12-2010
The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a judgment against New Jersey gas station chain Raceway Petroleum and its owner, Nicholas Kambitsis, to pay $3.9 million in unpaid overtime wages and liquidated damages to more than 700 former and current employees. The company and Mr. Kambitsis personally must also pay $100,000 in civil money penalties.
A proposed settlement has been reached in a class action suit brought on behalf of more than 750 former employees of Spansion, Inc. who were terminated from the company's Sunnyvale, California and Austin, Texas sites in 2009. The suit claimed the company violated the California and federal WARN Acts by failing to provide employees with adequate advance notice of the layoff. Under the settlement, more than 750 former Spansion employees and their attorneys will receive an estimated $8.6 million global settlement fund.
A former Tennessee Commerce Bank officer will receive more than $1 million in back wages interest, attorney's fees, and other damages, and will return to work after being fired for disclosing the bank's questionable financial practices. OSHA found the bank violated whistleblower protection provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The complaint alleged that the employee was placed on administrative leave in March, 2008 and fired in May, 2008 after raising concerns about internal controls, employee accounts, insider trading and other issues.
Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., has agreed to pay $1 million to settle a federal sexual harassment lawsuit filed on behalf of five women in the public safety department. They claimed that their supervisor's abusive treatment included groping and forcibly kissing them; making lewd comments and gestures regarding sexual activities he wanted to perform on them; displaying or e-mailing pornography and sexually explicit materials; and making other crude sexual remarks. The college will provide annual training for all managers and supervisors and post a notice regarding the settlement.
Posted 04-14-2010
Wal-Mart has agreed to pay more than $11.7 million to settle yet another discrimination suit. According to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a Wal-Mart distribution center denied jobs to female applicants from 1998 through February 2005, regularly hiring male entry-level applicants for warehouse positions, but excluding female applicants who were equally or better qualified.
The U.S. Department of Labor has found Peri Software Solutions Inc in violation of the H-1B provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, uncovering nearly $1.5 million in back wages due to 163 workers. An investigation by the Wage and Hour Division found that the Newark-based company failed to pay the required prevailing wage to workers hired as computer analysts under the H-1B program. Investigators also found the company forced employees to sign employment contracts and then sued them when those contracts were broken. The company was also assessed a civil penalty of $439,000 and faces a potential two-year debarment from the H-1B program.
After more than two years of litigation, Sanofi-Aventis has agreed to pay $15.4 million to settle a class action suit accusing the pharmaceutical company of systemic discrimination against female employees both in pay and promotions. The settlement on behalf of some 4,000 female sales reps employed by the company since May, 2005 includes $8.2 million to pay individual monetary claims, $2 million distributed to class members in the form of base pay adjustments, and $535,000 in service payments to the five named plaintiffs. The preliminary settlement also provides $4.6 million in attorneys' fees.
Posted 03-04-2010
SSM Health Care, owner of seven health care centers and hospitals in the St. Louis area, has paid more than $1.7 million in back wages following a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division. Investigators found that employees were not paid when they were required to work through some meal periods, since the company's timekeeping system automatically deducted time for meal periods whether or not the employees were fully relieved of their duties.
Seventeen television networks and production studios, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Columbia, DreamWorks, Universal and Warner Brothers, as well as several talent agencies, have reached a $70 million settlement in 19 age discrimination cases brought by 165 television writers. The writers alleged that the agencies refused to represent older (40 +) writers and aided and abetted the networks' and studios' systematic failures to hire them. One talent agency, International Creative Management settled in 2008 for approximately $4.5 million, while the lawsuit continued against the rest of the defendants.
Li Jin Yang and Dong Lin, a wife and husband operating five Oriental Forest restaurants in Michigan, have been ordered by a federal court judge to pay $2 million in minimum wage and overtime pay and damages owed to 129 workers following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to pay $11 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of 97,000 current and former workers in Iowa over allegations that they were forced to skip breaks or work off the clock. The lawsuit, filed in 2001, claimed the company failed to compensate workers for off-the-clock work and overtime, altered employee time records and prevented employees from taking lunch and rest breaks.
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.
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.
