Local 1180 Wins EEOC Case

For years, the City of New York paid minorities and women substantially less than white men, a broad pattern of discrimination that the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says the city needs to remedy with raises to the workers and back pay and other damages totaling more than $246 million.

The EEOC, which enforces federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or religious affiliation, issued the ruling on Monday in response to a complaint that CWA Local 1180 filed on behalf of more than 1,000 Administrative Managers against the city during the administration of the city's previous mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

"The findings are a federal indictment of the systemic inequality of the City's personnel practices that this administration has inherited, and that our Mayor has repeatedly stated he wishes to correct in our City," CWA Local 1180 President Arthur Cheliotes said. "I am hopeful that this administration will take up the EEOC's offer and engage in the conciliation process the EEOC has proposed to correct this institutional discrimination and finally end inequality in the ranks of the City's workforce."

In its investigation of Local 1180's complaint, the EEOC said it found "structural and historic problems" that resulted in the wages of women and minorities being "much less than their white male counterparts' in similarly situated jobs and titles."

New York City now has until Friday, April 17, to make an offer and negotiate that $246 million judgement with the EEOC, or else the case will move to the U.S. Department of Justice, which will file a lawsuit against the city.

"The E.E.O.C. determination puts the federal government's weight behind Local 1180's 40-year Journey for Justice. Whether male or female, Black, Latina, Asian or white, workers need to be organized in a union to fight and secure their rights under the law and receive equal pay for equal work," Cheliotes said.

The ruling received wide coverage, including in New York City newspapers:

The New York Times
New York City Discriminated in Paying Managers, Commission Finds By MARC SANTORA | APRIL 6, 2015

The New York Daily News
EEOC: New York City owes underpaid minority female employees $246 million BY ERIN DURKIN, DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU | Monday, April 6, 2015

The New York Post
NYC should pay $246M to female minority employees over discrimination: commission by Yoav Gonen | April 6, 2015