U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE VS PUERTO RICO DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

The following excerpt is from the Department of Justice website:

Monday, August 29, 2011
“WASHINGTON – The Justice Department today settled a lawsuit with the Puerto Rico Department of Justice (PRDOJ) to protect the rights of employees with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The settlement resolves a complaint that the PRDOJ discriminated against an employee with a disability by failing to provide her with a reasonable accommodation, as required by the ADA.
The complaint alleged that the PRDOJ relocated an employee who uses a wheelchair to an office building that the PRDOJ knew did not provide the employee with accessible bathrooms or accessible parking. As a result, the employee was forced to seek help from others to park and enter her place of work, and she resorted to intentionally dehydrating herself at work because she could not access the office bathrooms, according to the complaint.
“The Americans with Disabilities Act protects the right of every American to work without facing these types of indignities and hurdles,” said Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “This settlement reinforces the Civil Rights Division’s commitment to ensuring the promise of equal employment opportunity for all individuals with disabilities.”
The settlement agreement, which must be approved by the district court in San Juan, requires the PRDOJ to pay $45,000 to the aggrieved employee; to provide training to employees on the requirements of the ADA; and to adopt policies to ensure that the PRDOJ does not require employees with disabilities to attend meetings at, or to be relocated to, an inaccessible office location.
Title I of the ADA prohibits employers, such as the PRDOJ, from discriminating against a qualified individual on the basis of disability in regard to job application procedures; hiring, advancement, or discharge; employee compensation; job training; and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. In addition, a n employer is required to make a reasonable accommodation to the known disability of an employee if it would not impose an “undue hardship” on the operation of the employer’s business. Reasonable accommodations are adjustments or modifications provided by an employer to enable people with disabilities to enjoy equal employment opportunities.”

The above case shows that even governments such as states, municipalities, territories etc. of the United States must follow federal laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act.

DOJ SETTLES WITH PORK PRODUCER REGARDING IMMIGRATION EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION

The following excerpt is from the Department of Justice Website:
Monday, August 22, 2011

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department today reached a settlement with Farmland Foods Inc., a major producer of pork products in the United States, resolving allegations that it engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination by imposing unnecessary and excessive documentary requirements on non-U.S. citizens and foreign-born U.S. citizens when establishing their authority to work in the United States. Farmland Foods, a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods Inc., is headquartered in Kansas City, Mo. The settlement resolves the lawsuit between the United States and Farmland filed in June 2011.
The lawsuit, initiated by the Civil Rights Division’s Office of Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC), was based on an OSC investigation revealing that Farmland required all newly hired non-U.S. citizens and some foreign-born U.S. citizens at its Monmouth, Illinois plant to present specific and, in many cases, extra work-authorization documents beyond those required by federal law. In the case of non-U.S. citizens, Farmland required the presentation of a specific work-authorization document issued by the Department of Homeland Security, such as a permanent resident card or an employment authorization document, rather than allowing the employee to choose which document(s) to present from the list of acceptable documents on the Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9. Farmland also required additional work authorization documents, generally by requiring social security cards, even when employees had already produced other documents establishing work authority. In the case of foreign-born naturalized U.S. citizens, Farmland sometimes required evidence of citizenship, such as certificates of naturalization or U.S. passports, even when those individuals had other means of proving their work authority. Farmland’s demand for specific or excessive documents to establish work authority violated the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
In addition to ending its impermissible document requests and modifying its employment eligibility verification process, Farmland has agreed to pay $290,400 in civil penalties, the highest civil penalty paid through settlement since enactment of the INA’s anti-discrimination provision in 1986. Farmland also agreed to monitoring and reporting provisions, as well as training for their human resources personnel.
“The Justice Department is committed to protecting the right of all work-authorized employees, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status, to work without having to overcome extra and discriminatory hurdles during the hiring process,” said Thomas E. Perez, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division. “We are pleased to have reached this agreement, and we will continue to rely upon both public education and focused enforcement to prevent and deter employers from engaging in discriminatory I-9 practices. ”