1.55 Million Reasons to get your act together…

The EEOC recently announced that it settled a claim brought against Merrill Lynch for the sum of $1,550,000. In it’s lawsuit the EEOC alleged that Merrill Lynch refused to promote and terminated Majid Borumand because of his Muslim faith and Iranian descent. According to the EEOC, at this same time Merrill Lynch promoted a less qualified individual. In addition to the financial terms of the settlement, Merrill Lynch had to agree to provide training on discrimination based on race and national origin. In addition, it had to agree that it will not discriminate based on race and national origin, nor will it retaliate against those who oppose discrimination in the workplace.

Employers it’s time to pay attention to these claims they are on the rise and this case is not an aberration in terms of value. Just recently, a federal appeals court upheld a $756,000 damage award against AT&T in favor of two Jehovah’s witnesses who were fired after attending an annual convention for members of their faith.