Equal employment opportunity
Equal employment opportunity is equal opportunity in employment. Examples of legislation to foster it or to protect it from eroding include the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which was established by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to assist in the protection of United States employees from discrimination. The law was the first federal law designed to protect most US employees from employment discrimination based upon that employee's (or applicant's) race, color, religion, sex, or national origin (Public Law 88-352, July 2, 1964, 78 Stat. 253, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e et. seq.). Employment discrimination entails areas such as firing, hiring, promotions, transfer or wage practices and it is also illegal to discriminate in advertising, referral of job applicants, or classification. The Title is pertinent in companies affecting commerce that have fifteen or more employees. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is section 705 of the title.
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
In 2001, the department underwent an investigation after the U.S Attorney's Office received complaints from employees that they had suffered employment discrimination. The lawsuit alleged that the Parks Department violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by engaging in a pattern or practice of discrimination against employees on the basis of their race and/or national origin in making promotion decisions. According to the Complaint, the Parks Department's senior managers sought out and promoted whites to management positions without announcing job openings for those positions or conducting any formal interview process, all in plain disregard of the Parks Department's own stated equal employment opportunity policies. From at least 1995, minorities have been significantly under-represented in the Parks Department's managerial ranks according to the Complaint. The judge had ruled that the plaintiffs had presented substantial evidence to merit a trial on the allegations of class-wide discrimination in pay, promotions and retaliation. In 2008, the City of New York agreed to pay $21 million to settle the federal class action lawsuit. By agreeing to settle the claims, the City avoided a trial on the allegations.