Banks, Big Pharma,
Wal-Mart Rank High for Penalties in Workplace Discrimination and Harassment
Cases
Good Jobs First
A new report on employment
discrimination and sexual harassment cases finds that major banks rank high
among those big companies that have paid the most in damages and settlements.
Bank of America (including its
subsidiary Merrill Lynch) has paid a total of $210 million since 2000, more
than any other big company.
Morgan Stanley ranks fourth at
$150 million and Wells Fargo ranks ninth at $68 million.
The financial services industry
overall has paid a total of $530 million in penalties. The retail sector has
paid the same amount, so the two industries have the dubious distinction of
being tied for first place.
These findings, based on an
extensive examination of court records, are contained in Big Business Bias:
Employment Discrimination and Sexual Harassment at Large Corporations
published today by the Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First. It is
available at https://www.goodjobsfirst.org/bias.
"Our research shows that big banks have been among the worst offenders when it comes to allowing discriminatory and abusive conditions to exist in their workplaces," said Good Jobs First Research Director Philip Mattera, who wrote the report and led the research, which was conducted as part of the latest expansion of the Corporate Research Project's Violation Tracker database.
"The widespread
discrimination, harassment and abuse uncovered at some of the nation's largest
financial institutions should shock American consumers," said Nick
Weiner, Organizing Coordinator with the Committee for Better Banks.
"It's no surprise that Wells
Fargo is high on this list, which is only the latest sign of the
fundamental toxicity that defines the culture of our big banks and robs the
very men and women who serve customers every day of the dignity and fairness
they deserve. Now more than ever, bank workers need a real voice on
the job to push back on these toxic forces, without fear of
retaliation, and help bring desperately needed reform to the financial
services industry."
Big Business Bias is an analysis of individual and class action cases
alleging workplace discrimination based on gender, race, national origin,
religion, age or disability as well as sexual or racial harassment.
It covers private lawsuits brought
in federal or state court as well as cases brought with the involvement of the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the U.S. Labor Department's
Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).
It covers cases brought against
corporations (and their subsidiaries) included in the Fortune 1000, the Fortune
Global 500 and Forbes' list of America's Largest Private Companies.
"We found that virtually
every large company has paid damages or reached an out-of-court settlement in
at least one discrimination or harassment lawsuit," Mattera said,
"but in the vast majority of cases the terms of the settlements were kept
confidential. Our report is based on the subset of those cases with disclosed
settlements as well as those with public court verdicts and EEOC or OFCCP
penalties."
The report finds that since the
beginning of 2000, large corporations are known to have paid $2.7 billion in
penalties, including $2 billion in 234 private lawsuits, $588 million in 329
EEOC actions and $81 million in 117 OFCCP cases.
Following Bank of America in the
ranking of most-penalized large companies are Coca-Cola ($200 million) and Novartis
($183 million).
The corporation with the largest
number of cases with disclosed penalties is Walmart, at 27. Its penalty total
of $52 million would have been much higher if the U.S. Supreme Court had not
ruled 5-4 in 2011 to dismiss a nationwide gender discrimination class action
against the company.
Following banks and retailers, the
industries with the most disclosed penalties are food/beverage products ($252
million), pharmaceuticals ($209 million) and freight/logistics ($187 million).
Race and gender cases (mainly
relating to hiring, promotion and pay) account for the largest shares of
discrimination penalties, with each category totaling just over $1 billion.
Age discrimination cases rank
third with over $240 million in penalties, followed by disability cases at $155
million and sexual harassment cases at $123 million.
Employees at all levels of the
occupational hierarchy have filed discrimination lawsuits against large
corporations. The report documents lawsuits whose plaintiffs range from
executives, managers and professionals to blue-collar and service workers.
However, it finds that managers
are more likely to bring age discrimination cases while racial bias and sexual
harassment suits more often are filed by blue-collar and service workers.
In addition to supporting the call
by the #MeToo movement to end non-disclosure agreements and mandatory
arbitration, the report endorses reforms that would require publicly-traded
companies and large federal contractors to disclose how much they pay out each
year in aggregate damages and settlements in discrimination and harassment
cases.
Good Jobs First, based in
Washington, DC, is a non-profit, non-partisan resource center promoting
accountability in economic development. Its Corporate Research Project provides
research resources for organizations and individuals concerned about all forms
of corporate accountability. Primary funding for Big Business Bias came from
the Reva & David Logan Foundation.