Possible Racial Discrimination

[mnhim]

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: CA

1. Is it legal to lay off a whole department, and then hire new people to work in that same department?

2. What if all those people that were hired are all white?

[cbg]

1.) As the question is worded, yes, it is legal.

2.) Were any of the people who were laid off white? If so, then you'll have an extremely difficult time making a claim of racial discrimination stick.

[mnhim]

No one laid off are white. 3 asian, 1 hispanic, and 1 african american were laid off.

[cbg]

Well, it's not a guarantee that you have a claim for racial discrimination, but on the basis of the very few facts we have available to us, it's probably worth running it past an employment attorney.

[mnhim]

Well, here is whats been happening so far. We have a new CIO and with this new CIO started hiring new people, all of which are white. A promotion was given to a co-worker of mine and then was denied that position when the new CIO came in. This CIO then hires another person who qualifies with just the bare minimum and who is also white. The person that lost his position was asian, his qualifications are beyond the minimum requirements and he has over 12 years of experience in the organization.

[cbg]

My answer above stands. It is by no means unusual for new managment to fire existing employees and bring in their own people, and that is legal. So you would need to show that there is a valid reason to believe that the people who were fired, were fired BECAUSE they were not white, and that the new hires were hired BECAUSE they are white, and not for any other reason. An employment attorney may be able to help you determine whether or not you can do that. This is the only answer I can give you. If you are looking for someone to tell you yes, this is unquestionably racial disrimination or no, this is absolutely not racial discrimination, I'm sorry but we won't be able to do that until someone returns the EL crystal ball.