Spotlight on Civil Rights

Walgreens Lawsuit

Racial discrimination in the workplace is a serious issue in the US. Laws have been implemented to ensure employment discrimination does not exist in today's society. In 2006, former employees filed a Walgreens lawsuit based on racial discrimination in the workplace. Evidence was found that Walgreens stores were assigning employees to certain stores based on race, which is a direct violation of civil rights laws. A settlement was recently reached on the Walgreens lawsuit with a payment of $20 Million

Read More About: Walgreens and Workplace Discrimination

After investigating both St. Louis and Miami district offices, the EEOC determined that Walgreens has been assigning African American employees to low-performing stores and to African American based communities. They also discovered that a number of employees were denied promotional opportunities based on racial discrimination, which violates federal law. The EEOC thus found sufficient evidence to confirm the allegations or racial discrimination in the workplace, filing the case under Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts.

The Title VII of the Civil Rights Act consists of many areas, including:

• Equal employment opportunity
• Exemption
• Discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex or national origin
• Other unlawful employment practices
• Prevention of unlawful employment practice

In the Fiscal Year of 2006, the EEOC accounted for 36 percent of its caseloads to racial-based discrimination charges. Usually, these types of charges are not uncommon and often frequent, yet in the past 15 years racial discrimination charges have substantially increased. The EEOC Chair, Naomi C. Earp, represented the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by stating that, “We will not rest until workplace decision-making is based on merit rather than immutable and irrelevant characteristics, such as race or color.”