Posted 11:30 a.m., Friday, May 25, 2001
UPS sued in bias case involving Maui driver
Associated Press
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a federal lawsuit yesterday accusing United Parcel Service of racial discrimination for firing a driver on Maui.
The federal commission said Carlos Harris, who is black, was fired for swearing on the job, while other drivers who engaged in similar conduct were disciplined less harshly.
Harris worked at the delivery service's Kahului facility from March 1994 to September 1998.
Timothy Riera, Honolulu office director for the commission, said Harris was fired for swearing around co-workers — not customers — and had a clean job record before that. Riera said an investigation by the commission found a marked difference in the way black and non-black employees were treated.
Attempts to settle with UPS were unsuccessful, he said.
A spokeswoman at UPS' Atlanta headquarters, Peggy Gardner, said she hadn't seen the lawsuit and couldn't immediately comment on it.
Lance Hirokawa, a human resources manager for UPS in Hawai'i, said he didn't know about the lawsuit and could not comment.
In 1999 a federal judge in San Francisco approved an $8.2 million settlement for about 5,000 UPS workers who said they were discriminated against because of their race.
The workers' 1997 lawsuit alleged that UPS failed to promote black employees from part-time, hourly positions to full-time drivers or part-time supervisors because of their race.
The lawsuit on behalf of Harris seeks back pay, reinstatement and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. It also seeks an injunction blocking the company from engaging in any discriminatory employment practices.
"Local community groups have informed us that race discrimination is a major concern in Hawai'i," said William Tamayo, San Francisco-based regional attorney for the EEOC.
Riera said his office — which oversees Hawai'i, Guam, the Northern Marianas and American Samoa — receives hundreds of complaints every year about racial discrimination. A small percentage proceed to lawsuits, he said.
"I don't think people like to believe that this sort of thing still goes on, but it's very much alive here," Riera said.
