Racial Bias Claim Results In One of The Largest Settlements of Its Kind

Discrimination & Harassment, Employee Management, Employment Law & HR Topics / By
REUTERS (By Amanda Becker 8-28-13) – Merrill Lynch has agreed to pay $160 million to settle a class-action race discrimination lawsuit brought by a longtime U.S. employee. More than 1,200 current and former Merrill Lynch employees could be eligible to take part in the settlement, one of the largest sums obtained from an employer in a race bias lawsuit. Lead plaintiff George McReynolds, a black broker who has worked for Merrill Lynch for 30 years, sued his employer, saying it had a segregated workforce, including policies that steered black brokers into clerical positions and reassigned their accounts to white workers. At the time McReynolds filed the lawsuit, 2 percent of the brokers at Merrill Lynch were black, despite a 30-year-old consent decree it had signed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that required the brokerage to increase its proportion of black brokers to 6.5 percent. Though the Nashville, Tennessee office where McReynolds worked had grown to employ 65 to 70 brokers, there were never more than three black brokers at any time, the lawsuit stated. Office mangers resisted McReynolds’ attempts to recruit and retain diverse candidates and forced him into a partnership with a “white rookie” that was “highly detrimental” to his career, McReynolds reported. Recommendations:
  1. All managers and supervisors should participate in discrimination and harassment prevention training.
  2. Management needs to be vigilant in observing, reporting and resolving potential discrimination and harassment situations.
  3. Employee handbooks should be reviewed to ensure solid EEOC, Anti-Harassment and Discrimination and Internet Use policies properly address racial bias and discrimination.
  4. Staff should be reminded of your company’s policy against discriminatory conduct and be educated on how to report complaints.