An African-American man in another state recently claimed that he did not get the city human resource director job for which he had applied, simply because of his race. He has therefore filed a discrimination claim against the city. If job applicants in New York are mistreated on account of their race, it is within their rights to seek to hold accountable the companies that discriminated against them.
In the recent out-of-state case, the man claimed that he applied for the city HR director role after the former director had resigned from the job. However, the city reportedly refused to acknowledge the receipt of his application. The plaintiff asserted that the city offered the job to two other applicants, who are White, but these two applicants did not accept the role.
Even after the two finalists decided not to accept the position, the city still allegedly refused to interview the plaintiff. When the city posted the job once again, both the plaintiff and a White woman applied for it this time, and after they both completed interviews, the White woman was officially hired. However, according to the lawsuit, the White woman was not qualified for this role. An investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determined that the plaintiff was not given the job because of his race.
In his lawsuit, the African-American man is seeking over $75,000 along with costs and interest. Companies in New York and elsewhere must legally treat employees and aspiring employees equally despite their race, gender or age, for example. If they fail to do this, the discriminated-against workers have the right to file discrimination claims, with remedies in a successfully fought suit, potentially including monetary relief.
Source: mlive.com, “Man who wasn’t hired for HR job suing city for racial discrimination“, Andrew Dodson, July 6, 2017
