Racial discrimination complaint filed against Facebook

On Behalf of | Nov 30, 2016 | Workplace Discrimination

Most New York residents are familiar with the social networking website Facebook. Now, Facebook’s data center in North Carolina is at the center of a racial discrimination lawsuit that was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Nov. 22. The two plaintiffs in the lawsuit are one former employee and one current employee who allege that they were retaliated against for complaining about race discrimination.

The plaintiffs claim that a manager at Facebook referred to black employees using racial slurs and that they were paid less than white employees. When the plaintiffs complained, they say that the racial discrimination continued, and they were retaliated against for making complaints. According to a lawyer for the plaintiffs, the discrimination occurred over a period of three years. Each plaintiff is seeking $25,000 in compensation for damages.

A spokesperson for Facebook has denied the allegations in the lawsuit and said that the claims are ‘without merit.” According to the spokesperson, Facebook investigated the complaints and fired the manager who was mentioned in the complaints. Facebook also claims that it provided anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training to all of its data center employees and continued to monitor the work environments at the data centers.

An employer that takes action to correct discrimination in the workplace after receiving complaints about it may not be liable for employment discrimination. However, if supervisors ignored complaints about discrimination and failed to correct a problem, the employees who have been the victims of such behavior may want to meet with an attorney to see what the next step should be.

Source: CNET, “Facebook slapped with racial discrimination suit,” Carrie Mihalcik, Nov. 23, 2016

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