Chicago Black Firefighters Successful In Challenging Racially Discriminatory Test
A group of black firefighters has won their battle for relief in a long-standing dispute over the discriminatory impact of a screening test. The City of Chicago’s 1995 firefighter exam ranked applicants as highly qualified, qualified, or not qualified based on the results of the test. When it was time to hire applicants, only those people ranked as highly qualified were selected. The impact of the test discriminated against qualified black applicants.
Employment discrimination, including race discrimination, may be direct – such as refusing to hire someone because of their race - or it can be more subtle – such as screening practices that reduce minority applicants and employees such as job and intelligence tests, dress codes and English-only rules.
Here, a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the qualified black applicants alleging that the test had a discriminatory impact. The city conceded that the cut-off had a racially discriminatory impact, and the Supreme Court found that no legitimate “business necessity” required the cut-off. As a result, each time the test was used to determine which applicant’s to hire, a new race discrimination claim was created.
The Court of Appeals agreed, finding that each time the list was used the same problem occurred – blacks were discriminated against in the hiring process. As one of the judges explained, in a disparate impact claim, the firefighters didn’t need to show that the city of Chicago acted with discriminatory intent each time it used the highly qualified list - use of the list alone triggered a new [discrimination] claim.
As a result of this lawsuit, the City of Chicago will be hiring 111 new black firefighters, as well as paying millions of dollars to black candidates passed over for hiring.
If you believe you have been the victim of race discrimination, please contact a dedicated Atlanta employment discrimination lawyer. Often, discrimination is subtle. With years of experience, our Georgia race discrimination lawyers understand what practices and action may constitute discrimination and have successfully helped numerous clients fight workplace discrimination.
