But Names will Never Hurt me…Not so for Racial Slurs

As to our previous post on taking seriously complaints of racial harassment, thanks to Jon Hyman at the Ohio Employer’s Law Blog who posted the EEOC’s press release and commented on the case. The press release details the types of harassment as follows:

The EEOC charged that Daniels [the employee] was the target of persistent verbal abuse by coworkers and a supervisor whose racial slurs and offensive language included calling him the “N-word” and saying “we should do to blacks what Hitler did to the Jews” and “if the South had won then this would be a better country.”  Daniels was also subjected to multiple physical threats, such as lynching and other death threats after he reported the harassment.

Commentators have observed that the settlement amount paid [$2.5 million] “seems excessive for someone who was subjected to words, no matter how offensive they might be”. I know what they are driving at because, in many contexts, the law expects people to have a thick skin as it relates to the free expression of ideas (no matter how offensive).   However, unlawful harassment  arises from conduct that is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive.

The severity and the pervasiveness are the focus of the legal analysis. This is a very fact sensitive inquiry. For example, the New Jersey Supreme Court has held that some racial slurs are so historically offensive that their use in the workplace, even once, can lead to liability for an employer who doesn’t respond appropriately. A single utterance of an epithet can create a hostile work environment if it is view as “severe” and it is aimed at the individual rather than a generalized comment. I believe the weight of court authority would probably evaluate both the severity and the pervasiveness of the racial comments and that one comment might not be sufficient to create a hostile work environment. Certainly the use of racial slurs by a decision maker is evidence of discriminatory motive in adverse employment decisions as noted by the Supreme Court in Ash v. Tyson Foods.

Why did Lockheed pay $2.5 million to settle this case? The words were severe, the words were threats directed at an employee, and the company didn’t take appropriate remedial action.