Hialeah company pays $402,500 after review says hiring discrimination favored Hispanics
A Hialeah aerospace equipment supplier will pay $402,500 in back pay and offer jobs to settle accusations that it discriminated against 129 Black and non-Latin white job applicants in favor of Hispanic job applicants, the U.S. Department of Labor announced.
Some of those 129 applicants will be offered jobs as they become available.
The cash and jobs come from Boeing Distribution Services, which is now based on West 108th Street and is a subsidiary of Boeing, a leading manufacturer of airplanes, rockets, satellites and missiles. Officially, Boeing Distribution Services admits no equal employment opportunity violations.
Before Boeing’s purchase in October 2018, Boeing Distribution Services was KLX Inc. aka KLX Aerospace Solutions, a Miami-Dade operation run out of Wellington in Palm Beach County. Boeing’s purchase of KLX occurred two months after the time period reviewed by Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).
Among other functions, OFCCP makes sure federal contractors obey equal employment opportunity and affirmative action requirements. That’s the same office that recently accused Florida International University of engaging in gender pay discrimination.
READ MORE: FIU will pay $575,000 to settle gender pay discrimination allegations
OFCCP took a look at KLX’s hiring for “material handler 1” positions at its facility at 10000 NW 15th St. in Doral from Aug. 23, 2016, through Aug. 23, 2018. Indeed.com says a material handler “handles, moves and stores various non-hazardous and hazardous materials within a warehouse. Their main duties include loading and unloading different transport items, recording inventory statuses and making sure deliveries properly match purchase orders.”
“OFCCP found statistically significant differences in the hiring rates of Black and White applicants for Material Handler I positions when compared to similarly qualified Hispanic applicants,” the conciliation agreement between OFCCP and KLX said.
How to find out if you’re one of those who’ll get back pay or a job offer
This involved 116 Black applicants and 13 Non-Latin white applicants. Those people will receive $336,289 in back pay and $66,211 in interest, $402,500 in total, an average of $3,120.15 per person.
Also, Boeing Distribution Services will make “bona fide job offers with retroactive seniority” for shipping/receiving specialist A positions (the material handler jobs no longer exist) until 11 previous Black and Non-Latin white applicants are hired or until all of those previous applicants who have show interest in the jobs are contacted.
Boeing Distribution “will make its best effort to distribute the 11 hires as follows: at least six Black hires and five White hires,” the agreement said.
If you think you might be among the 129 people affected by this case, the 163 women in the FIU case or in a group of individuals affected by any previous case handled by OFCCP, check the Class Member Locator on the U.S. Department of Labor website.
