In September 2004, the EEOC district office in Seattle, Washington brought this suit against Lithia Subaru of Oregon City, a general automotive dealership, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. Two former employees, one of which was Iranian and a Muslim, and both of whom intervened in the case as plaintiffs, alleged that the defendant violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it discriminated against the Iranian employee because of his national origin and his religion, and retaliated against the other employee after he repeatedly complained about the discrimination suffered by his co-worker.

The defendant moved to compel arbitration as to the private plaintiffs, but the court denied the motion. The defendant filed an interlocutory appeal of this decision, but the appeal was withdrawn when the parties settled the case.

A consent decree was entered in March 2006. The parties agreed that the defendant would pay the complainants a total of $360,000, refrain from retaliating and discriminating on the basis of national origin and religion, distribute its anti-discrimination policy and complaint procedures, impose substantial employee discipline for future infractions of its policies, provide EEO training to all its employees, expunge the complainants' employee records of all reference to this litigation, issue neutral reference letters, post an EEO notice, and submit semiannual complaint reports to the EEOC. The settlement term was three years. The docket sheet does not show any further enforcement; the case was presumably closed in 2009.

Jason Chester - 08/02/2007


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