Big Lots Settles Latino-on-Black Discrimination Charges

On February 18, a U.S. district court judge approved a consent decree involving Big Lots discount stores in which Latino workers were found to have discriminated against and harassed some African-American employees. It is a rare federal case of minority-on-minority discrimination brought by EEOC on behalf of a Black mechanic and other African American workers. The suit alleged that Latino workers, including a supervisor, used racial epithets referring to Black workers, and that the company did nothing to stop the behavior. Under the consent decree, Big Lots agreed to pay $400,000 will require the stores to monitor, address and train about racial harassment.

“Federal Judge Faults Discount Store For Latino-On-Black Discrimination,” LawBlog.com, 2/18/10; http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/community/latino-black-discrimination/