In June 2000, the Miami District Office of the EEOC and Florida Equal Justice Center filed this lawsuit against Sun-Rich of Immokalee, Inc., formerly known as Sun-Rich of Florida City, Florida in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida alleging discrimination on the basis of race and national origin in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Specifically, the complaint alleged that the defendant failed to rehire black Haitians for the tomato picking season, preferring Hispanic workers. One group of complainants intervened in the lawsuit in September 2000. Following motions for summary judgment filed by both the defendant and the EEOC, the intervening plaintiffs accepted and offer for judgment from the defendant in November 2000 and the case was closed. The case resumed in January 2001 when the defendant successfully filed a motion to amend the judgment for the intervenor-plaintiffs. Following some mediation, the defendant and EEOC settled the lawsuit in January 2002 through a consent decree.

The three-year decree, containing an injunction not to discharge, lay off or fail to hire an applicant based on race or national origin, required the defendant to: make compliance reports regarding the managers attending training, provide the EEOC with notice of the training, provide the EEOC with copies of applications related to hiring and statistics of employees, retain all employment records relating to complaints or investigations regarding race or natural origin, post and distribute notice of employee rights in English, Spanish and Creole, provide annual training to supervisors regarding all Title VII requirements, and pay $375,000 to be distributed among 20 complainants.

Daisy Manning - 11/13/2007


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