The New York office of the EEOC brought this suit against Dielectric Laboratories, Inc., an upstate New York computer parts manufacture, in September 2002, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York. Complainants allege that the defendant subjected them to a hostile work environment based on their national origin. One complainant intervened in the case several months after the initial complaint was filed by the EEOC. The parties entered into mediation and came to a settlement prior to trial. The court issued a consent decree order in November 2004 dismissing all the pending issues in the case.

The consent decree contains an anti-discrimination provision, an equal opportunity provisions (which stipulates that DLI will actively recruit Native Americans), an anti-retaliation provision that applies to all of the complainants, a required two intensive two hour training sessions addressing equal opportunity rights and responsibilities for management and supervisory positions, a required two one-hour training sessions for non-management, non-supervisory employees of DLI, and a requirement that DLI implement and publish to all employees a policy and procedure for addressing national origin harassment and retaliation. For the duration of the consent decree (approximately two years) DLI is required to provide a bi-annual written report to the EEOC of any complaints of retaliation and/or harassment. In addition, DLI is required to pay the complainants $200,000 in total.

Lionel Joiner - 05/30/2007


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