Employers Taking a Stand Against Workplace Racial Discrimination Communicate Compliance, Culture and Cost-Avoidance

I’ve spent the last 31 years of my career preventing and stopping workplace discrimination against employees representing many NYS-defined protected classes (e.g., classes protected from discrimination).  As I always mention when conducting NYS Annual Sexual and Other Harassment Prevention Training, every employee ends up in at least one protected class: age, as in age discrimination. (I’m in several protected classes myself; however, I’m White.) Race is one of many key employee classes protected from discrimination in New York state. Given the current issues in the larger society with regard to violence against Black U.S. citizens, especially now (or ever) is not the time to ignore or tolerate workplace racial discrimination.

Perhaps my perspective is skewed as an HR nerd; however, compliance is an important part of building a productive workplace culture.  Compliance communicates integrity (e.g., walking the talk), ethics, etc.

As part of the above training, I walk employees through the spectrum of discriminatory / illegal behaviors:

Yes, all of the behaviors above are illegal. If you don’t take my word for it, please feel free to peruse the EEOC’s website of Significant EEOC Race/Color Cases (Covering Private and Federal Sectors). Money talks – here are a few examples of what workplace racism can cost on a number of levels, not just money:

• In March 2020,  Porous Materials, a manufacturer in Ithaca, NY, must pay $93,000 in monetary relief and report any future harassment allegations directly to the EEOC to settle claims that it engaged in pervasive harassment based on race, sex and national origin, according to a recent EEOC lawsuit.  The extreme bullying and harassment allegedly included a manager using racial slurs toward his employees, calling foreign workers “terrorists,” telling immigrants to leave America, and making unwanted sexual advances toward female employees.  The EEOC further claims the owner of Porous Materials did nothing to put a stop to the harassment.  EEOC v. Porous Materials, Inc., Civil Action No. 3:18-cv-01099 (N.D.N.Y. Mar. 3, 2020).

(The above also underscores in no uncertain terms that there’s no such thing as an “equally opportunity jerk.”)

• In March 2020,  Prewett Enterprises, Inc., doing business as B&P Enterprises, and Desoto Marine, LLC, rail services and disaster response companies, paid $250,000 and furnished other relief to settle a race harassment case brought by the EEOC. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Prewett and Desoto supervisors and managers subjected African American employees to daily harassment and humiliation because of their race by calling them racially offensive and derogatory names and assigned Black employees the more dangerous job duties. Under the two-year consent decree, the businesses will revise their anti-racial harassment policies; create an 800-hotline number for employees to report complaints about discrimination, harassment and retaliation; and conduct exit interviews of employees who leave the company. The decree also mandates training of employees and the reporting of any future complaints of race harassment to the EEOC. EEOC v. Prewett Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a B&P Enterprises, and Desoto Marine,LLC, Civil Action No. 3:18-cv-213 (N.D. Miss. Mar. 18, 2020).

When workplace discrimination is ignored, the accompanying breakdown in compliance and culture are assiduously tolerated. And when racial (or any other protected class) microaggressions are ignored, it can hit your workplace’s bottom line, hard. Most importantly: microaggressions often lead to acts of workplace violence, risking the safety and lives of all involved.

How do you best communicate your workplace’s compliance and culture (while avoiding cost and protecting the safety of all employees) by preventing and stopping workplace racism?