Legal Question in Discrimination Law in Virginia
What should I do abou this
I have been working for this company for about a year & a half as an area manager & have had four operational managers within that past year & a half. However, out of four managers I have only had a problem with one. That has made comments to others that I need to be fired, well now he is my manager again and he made a comment that I feel was racist. I was in the break room one day me and my supervisor in which we are both African American and my manager came in and I saw he had something under his coat, I then asked what is that under your coat and he responded 'A rope to hang you with when you mess up' this is coming from a white man. At that time, my supervisor and I looked at each other and I started thinking that was a racial comment because he already has something against me. I reported this to the personnel Manager and he asked me did I think he was joking and I said no because we do not have a joking relationship. Then I told the General Manager and he said he would get to the bottom of it. Well the next week the brought me in and told me that we are managers and need to work our differences out. Then told me this is not the 70's and that stuff no longer exists. I still have to work for this person. What should I do?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: What should I do abou this
The federal Fourth Circut Court of Appeals in Richmond generally requires more than one instance of what it recognizes as racist conduct in a workplace environment before it will uphold a verdict in the plaintiff's favor in such matters, and often has referred in its various decisions to something akin to an identifiable pattern or peristent practice of such prohibited conduct(which could be two or more) as constituting the necessary predicate for a successful suit involving this kind of issue.
Consequently, it would be my recommendation that you keep careful records of all such incidents and that when such a pattern develops/continues(particularly, after your complaints), that you then consider referring it to the EEOC for the filing of a formal complaint.
Re: What should I do abou this
You should not have to put up with this type of stuff. You may want to contact the EEOC and file what they call a charge. Contact me office and we can discuss this.
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