Accused of Racial Discrimination After Firing an At-Will Employee

[throwaway64759]

dude, there is simply no help for you. Everything you have posted screams discrimination....and that is only what you posted. If there is an EEOC investigation or law suit, they are going to tear you apart. You screwed up. If you, I mean the higher up, isn't fired for this the company deserves all the punishment it will get.

But this could just as easily have happened if the employee had been white. I will concede the higher-up may have held a grudge, but on account of personal animosity not racism as I've never heard said the individual say or do anything remotely racist.

It only looks like discrimination because by sheer happenstance/coincidence, he happens to be the only minority in an all-white department. By this logic, wouldn't this mean any non-white employee in an all-white department is granted bulletproof immunity from discipline and termination?

[free9man]

The problem is, and which you don't seem to grasp, is that even if it wasn't racial discrimination....everything about it screams that it was. A court can find for the plaintiff if they sue you based on what you've stated here. Appearances matter a great deal when it comes to discrimination.

[Dogmatique]

But this could just as easily have happened if the employee had been white. I will concede the higher-up may have held a grudge, but on account of personal animosity not racism as I've never heard said the individual say or do anything remotely racist.

It only looks like discrimination because by sheer happenstance/coincidence, he happens to be the only minority in an all-white department. By this logic, wouldn't this mean any non-white employee in an all-white department is granted bulletproof immunity from discipline and termination?

I cannot for the life of me see why you're not grasping this.

You. Messed. Up.

This is probably one of the closest things (if not the closest) to an employee slam-dunk that has ever been posted on these legal forums.

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The problem is, and which you don't seem to grasp, is that even if it wasn't racial discrimination....everything about it screams that it was. A court can find for the plaintiff if they sue you based on what you've stated here. Appears matter a great deal when it comes to discrimination.

OP should print this out and recite it over and over and over until it sinks in.

Scratch that. OP should just print this whole thread and show his attorney. That's literally the best advice we can give at this point. Everything else is wasting his, and our, time.

[Taxing Matters]

It only looks like discrimination because by sheer happenstance/coincidence, he happens to be the only minority in an all-white department. By this logic, wouldn't this mean any non-white employee in an all-white department is granted bulletproof immunity from discipline and termination?

It isn’t just that he was the only minority in an all white department. It is also that he was treated differently than the whites in that department. That’s the problem. That's what makes it potentially illegal discrimination here. And from what you’ve said, your company botched the handling of this, making it look pretty bad. This is why I said at the start that good companies have procedures in place that (1) ensure everyone is treated the same and (2) that documents things properly so that if an employee does have to be fired, the company can show it was for a reason other than illegal discrimination. Your company didn’t have that, and what it did do may come back to bite it.

Now is the time for the company to seek a good employment law attorney. You are past what you can get from a message board forum. Pony up the money and get some good legal advice on this situation and how to prevent problems like it in the future.

[jk]

You recite statements that have been addressed yet you ignore what you have been told and ask again. The answers haven't changed.

[Dogmatique]

So OP ... we can see you're back, checking on the thread.

On the other forum you've apparently shared something about the employee also being the only male employee in that department too?

Is that right? This is your chance to correct me ...

[free9man]

OP PM'd me a typed out version of a letter sent by the terminated employee's attorney.

OP - You should not be asking us about letters attorneys send you. You should be talking only to your counsel about them.

[throwaway64759]

So OP ... we can see you're back, checking on the thread.

On the other forum you've apparently shared something about the employee also being the only male employee in that department too?

Is that right? This is your chance to correct me ...

Yes, he was the only male in the department. The employee is also claiming gender discrimination.

[eerelations]

Esteemed Colleagues, just as an FYI, just before OP's thread was closed on another board, I made a sarcastic comment. OP took this comment to mean I am somehow sympathetic to him and PM'd me with a copy of a letter from the plaintiff's lawyer. OP wants me to help him respond to the letter. (!!!) So I advised him to get an attorney. Again, just an FYI. Maybe we need to be closing OP's threads on all the boards as this issue is starting to become a rather huge time-waster for all of us.

[chyvan]

PM'd me with a copy of a letter from the plaintiff's lawyer.

He sent it to everyone that replied in the thread.