In September 1999, the EEOC district office in Miami, Florida brought this suit against Sun Ag, Inc., a citrus orange grower, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The complaint states that a two Black males alleged violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Specifically, they claimed that the defendant perpetuated a racially hostile work environment when it allowed its employees to use racial slurs and display a noose in front of Black employees. After extensive discovery, the parties settled. A consent decree was entered in October 2000.

In the consent decree, the parties agreed that the defendant would refrain from retaliating and discriminating on the basis of race, provide five hours of EEO training, post EEO notices, submit annual compliance reports to the EEOC, hire an EEO consultant, and pay the class of aggrieved parties $249,000. No costs or fees were awarded. The terms of the agreement ran for three years.

Joel Pettit - 06/21/2007


compress summary