Multinational company Daikin Industries Ltd. will need to pay $100,000 to the 98 Black applicants they discriminated against, according to a new agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor.
Per a news release, the Department of Labor announced that workers in the Virginia plant discriminated against 98 Black applicants in the job process for the assembly line positions in 2020.
According to the court, the company violated Executive Order 11246 which protects workers from discrimination based on race, gender and class.
Along with the $100,000 in fines that will be paid as back wages and interest to the people who were discriminated against, Daikin will also offer three positions to the identified class members as part of the conciliation agreement.
“Federal contractors that accept taxpayer funds to fulfill contracts know that equal employment opportunity and compliance with federal regulations are non-negotiable,” said Samuel B. Maiden, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Regional Director, per the press release. “The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs will make certain the issues raised in this compliance evaluation are resolved and that Daikin Industries puts procedures in place to safeguard the process for future applicants.”
US Department of Labor enters agreement with Daikin Industries to resolve race-based hiring discrimination allegations at Virginia location https://t.co/xcP4Kk2iis
— YourHealthyBusiness (@UrHlthyBusiness) October 12, 2023
The case against Daikin comes weeks after the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a similar lawsuit against Memphis companies Aaron Thomas Company Inc. and Supreme Staffing, LLC. for similar allegations.
According to the lawsuit, both companies failed to hire Black applicants. The Black applicants that were hired were also discriminated against by being offered lower-paying positions and later being terminated based on their race, violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Overall, decades after anti-discrimination laws were passed, Black workers are still being forced to deal with discriminatory practices at working spaces.
Per a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. workers conducted in Feb. of this year, 41% of Black workers who took part said that they were discriminated against during the hiring process or when it came to pay promotions.
The percentage was exponentially larger than any other demographic as 25% of Asian, 20% of Hispanic and 8% of white workers reported the same.
Of the 41% of Black workers who said they were discriminated against, 48% were men and 36% were women who said that their race resulted in unfair treatment by their employers.
In a previous study, 64% of Black workers agreed that discriminatory practices based on race is a key issue in the U.S.
