Mississippi Company Agrees to $1.3M Discriminatory Hiring Settlement
Howard Industries accepted a $1.3 million settlement agreement in a lawsuit in which four African-American women alleged that the company held discriminatory hiring practices toward non-Hispanics. Agreeing to the settlement allows the company to avoid what was expected to be protracted litigation.
In their 2011 lawsuit Veronica Cook, Yolanda Phelps, Charlyn Dozier and Seleatha McGee said they repeatedly applied for employment at Howard Industries, but were not hired until after ICE raided Howard’s Laurel Miss. Plant. 592 illegal-alien workers were arrested in that 2008 raid.
The lawsuit alleged that Howard Industries knowingly hired illegal aliens and even showed some how to get false identities to conceal their status. Some workers held on to their jobs even after the Social Security Administration informed the company that their Social Security Numbers were not valid.
The plaintiffs filed their lawsuit after the company pleaded guilty to immigration law violations and agreed to pay a $2.5 million fine. Prior to that, the company’s human resources manager, Jose Humberto Gonzalez, admitted to knowingly hiring hundreds of illegal aliens.
Howard will pay $1.3 million into a settlement fund to be paid to the four plaintiffs and up to 5,000 others who were denied jobs at the company between March 2003 and Aug. 28, 2008. As part of the settlement, Howard will select by lottery and offer to hire 70 people who qualify for the settlement. The company did not have to admit to any wrongdoing under the settlement.
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