A white male hospital executive was recently awarded a $10 million payout for employment discrimination after being fired and then replaced by two women – one white, one of color – as part of his company’s diversity and inclusion program. The employee said he was terminated without warning due to the company’s efforts to diversify top leadership – evidence of which lead the jury to conclude that he was fired because of his race and his sex. The employer did not prove that he would have been fired the employee for other reasons.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. In this case, the jury found that the employment action was discriminatory because it was based on the employee’s race, white, and his sex, male. While efforts to diversify the workforce are widespread, decisions to terminate employees must be based on factors such as work performance, ability, experience and the like., not because an employee is a certain race or sex. Under the law, employees may not be terminated or otherwise subject to adverse employment actions based on a protected status.
Iowa Employment Discrimination Lawyers
If you believe that you have been wrongfully terminated or have suffered harassment on the job because of your sex, race, color, religion or national origin, or because you are disabled, contact the employment discrimination lawyers of McDonald, Woodward & Carlson PC for help today at 563-355-6478.