New York City has agreed to pay more than $1.3 million to 14 Department of Transportation employees who say their supervisors racially discriminated against them for almost a decade by addressing them with racial epithets, excluding them from preferred assignments and passing them over for promotion.
According to a complaint filed in January on behalf of the employees, as of October 2007, employees in the department’s Fleet Services unit reported to an executive director who routinely and openly used racial slurs to describe black employees. The director also served as an Equal Employment Opportunity counselor and was charged with handling complaints of discrimination.
