This is the second case filed in the
Signal International cases.
On Apr. 20, 2011, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed suit against defendant Signal International, LLC, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. The EEOC alleged violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC's allegations of unlawful employment practices and a hostile workplace on the basis of national origin, immigration status, and race stem from a related case,
David v. Signal International, brought against Signal by the guestworkers themselves.
The EEOC alleged that the terms and conditions of the Indian guestworkers' employment were less favorable than their non-Indian counterparts', and that Signal engaged in a pattern or practice of subjecting the Indian workers to a hostile environment and disparate terms and conditions of employment based on their race and national origin. The EEOC sought injunctive relief and monetary awards, including damages for emotional pain and suffering, punitive damages for malicious and reckless conduct, and attorneys' fees.
On Jan. 24, 2012, the Court (Magistrate Judge Robert Walker) granted a motion to intervene by three private plaintiffs who had been subjected to the allegedly unlawful treatment. The plaintiffs then filed a class action complaint, defining the proposed class as "all Indian Workers who paid recruitment fees and/or other amounts to the Recruiters, and who were employed by Signal at any time in 2006, 2007, and/or 2008."
On Feb. 29, 2012, the Court (Chief U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola) granted Signal's motion to transfer the case to the Eastern District of Louisiana on the grounds that this case and
David arose from the same conduct, and that the substantive issues and the parties were similar. District Judge Jay Zainey of the Eastern District of Louisiana then denied Signal's motion to consolidate the cases, noting that since the EEOC was a party to this case, it was statutorily entitled to expedited consideration.
On Sept. 10, 2013, Magistrate Judge Daniel Knowles granted the EEOC's motion for a protective order for information related to the immigration history or status of individuals involved in the case. Signal argued it needed the information for impeachment purposes; the court noted that it had
already rejected this argument in the
David case, and once again barred discovery on the matter.
On Sept. 26, 2013, the Court dismissed the Intervenors' (guestworkers') claim for recovery of recruitment fees. The alleged discriminatory conduct in connection with the recruitment related only to events that occurred outside of the United States and before the Intervenors began to work at Signal's facilities, and the court found that Congress intended to exclude non-citizens located outside the United States from the protection of Title VII. As such, the Intervenors were not covered when they paid the recruitment fee because they were non-citizens and were not working within the United States at the time.
On July 12, 2014, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation denied Signal's motion to transfer all of the cases pending against it to the Eastern District of Louisiana.
On Oct. 14, 2014, the Court denied Signal's motion for interlocutory appeal of the Court's prohibition of discovery on plaintiffs' post-Signal information including immigration status.
Although the Court set a trial date of June 1, 2015, on May 7, 2015, the trial was delayed indefinitely until an appeal on a separate EEOC case,
EEOC v. Bass Pro Outdoor World, LLC, could be resolved. Shortly after, on July 12, 2015, Signal filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, putting a further halt on the case proceedings.
In Dec. 2015, the EEOC announced that the parties had reached a
settlement for all cases, approved by the bankruptcy court. Signal would pay $5 million to 476 guestworkers through a claims process. All aggrieved individuals included in the litigation could receive relief in spite of the bankruptcy proceedings. Signal's CEO also issued an apology for its conduct.
This case is now closed.
Anna Dimon - 04/17/2015
Allison Hight - 01/15/2016
Ava Morgenstern - 12/01/2017
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