From Ballard Spahr comes news that a class-action lawsuit has been filed against the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, alleging that the agency discriminates against minority and female employees by giving them fewer promotions and paying them less than their white male co-workers.
A copy of the complaint in Jones v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can be accessed by clicking here.
Among the accusations made by the plaintiff are:
- excluding minorities and women from training opportunities that are regularly offered to white or male employees;
- excluding minorities and women from details, projects and other assignments that are regularly offered to white or male employees;
- employing bureau-wide performance evaluation policies that disproportionately result in high performance ratings for white or male employees and average (or lower) performance ratings for minority and women employees;
- employing a quota system to measure employee productivity that weighs investigation assignments without regard to complexity while assigning women and minorities and women the majority of longer-term, more complex investigations;
- failing to credit minorities and women for their experience on the same basis as white or male employees and failing to consider minorities and women for timely promotions and title changes on the same basis as whites or men;
- failing to grant minority and women employees conversions from “straight term” or from “term to perm” to permanent status on the same basis as white or male employees;
- systematically paying minorities and women lower wages and/or denying minorities opportunities to increase their earnings;
- retaliating against minority and women employees who complain of discrimination including by subjecting them to further discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and constructively discharging or discharging them.
The complaint includes tables that show how much more men and whites were paid than minorities or females as well as how less likely those who filed discrimination complaints were less likely to be promoted than those who did not file complaints.
