Employee Rights Short Takes: Discrimination By Transportation Authorities Out Of Control
Claims Of Gender, Race, Disability And National Origin Discrimination By Transportation Authorities
Earlier this month, a group of female and Hispanic Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) employees filed a class action complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination alleging that women and Hispanic workers were "pigeonholed in entry-level positions and grossly underpaid compared to non-Latino and male counterparts.
One day later, a federal class action was filed alleging that racism and sexism "pervade the culture" of the Chicago Department of Transportation which includes referring to black employees as "Mambo Gorilla," "nigger," and segregating minority employees by assigning them to work only on the city's "gang-infested" South Side.
Last Thursday ,the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority reached a settlement agreement resolving a class action lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The lawsuit alleged disability discrimination against visually-impaired Metro bus passengers by:
- failing to announce stops on buses
- failing to stop and pick up visually-impaired passengers
- failing to provide schedule and route information in accessible formats
- failing to make its public website accessible with screen-readers commonly used by the visually-impaired.
For more information about the settlement, look here.
Unfortunately, discrimination of all kinds in the government transportation business seems to be out of control.
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