Contacts
Peter G. Christian
Schaefer Halleen, LLC
412 South Fourth Street, Suite 1050
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Phone: 612-294-2619
Email: PChristian@SchaeferHalleen.com
Web: www.SchaeferHalleen.com
Black Carpenters Achieve Settlement with JL Schwieters Construction Regarding Race Harassment Claims
Lawsuit Alleged Supervisor Threatened Black Workers with Noose and Burning Cross
Minneapolis, MN, September 7, 2017, – – – The law firm of Schaefer Halleen, LLC, is pleased to announce that its clients, Will Staple and Dion Pye, have reached a settlement with JL Schwieters Construction, Inc. regarding the race discrimination claims they brought against the company in Minnesota district court, along with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”). As part of the settlement, JL Schwieters agreed to pay Staple and Pye $125,000 for wage and non-wage damages and attorney’s fees, and Staple and Pye agreed to release their legal claims and dismiss their case. The settlement also involved a Consent Decree between JL Schwieters and the EEOC in which JL Schwieters agreed to a number of non-monetary terms such as revising its employment policies regarding racial harassment and to provide training to all management and non-management employees on federal law prohibiting race discrimination. The Order granting the Joint Motion to Approve Consent Judgment was issued by the Court yesterday.
“We’re pleased this matter has reached a resolution. My clients are most pleased that this resolution involves the Defendant’s commitment to institute anti-race harassment policies and procedures that they believe will benefit minority carpenters well into the future,” said Peter Christian, Staple’s and Pye’s attorney.
Staple and Pye’s lawsuit alleged that they were subjected to outrageous acts of racial hostility by their supervisor, taunted with violence, and barraged with racially insensitive jokes and stereotypes on a regular basis while they were employed by JL Schwieters. Their Intervener-Complaint stated that their supervisor consistently called them “niggers,” that he threatened that he could “shoot a nigger from a mile away,” that he made a noose out of electrical wire and threatened to hang them, and that he made a cross out of wood and threatened to burn it in their yards. Staple and Pye alleged that this harassment was witnessed by coworkers and other supervisors but was tolerated and ignored by the company. JL Schwieters denied these allegations and did not admit any wrongdoing as a part of the settlement.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT Peter G. Christian at (612) 294-2619 or email at pchristian@schaeferhalleen.com. To review the background of Schaefer Halleen, LLC, and the groundbreaking discrimination, whistleblower, and retaliation cases Peter Christian and Schaefer Halleen have prosecuted, please visit www.schaeferhalleen.com.
