Is this discrimination?

[MDFINLEY]

Jurisdiction

Illinois

I was a contractor working for a large tech company Data Center in Illinois. I was on the job for 4 months, and was not made aware of any slow-down in work or production. Today, I was informed by my recruiter that 3 of us contractors were being laid off. The reason cited was a reduction in business need. My recruiter repeated over and over that I was re-hireable, and that my lay-off was not performance or complaint related.

Since I knew who the other contractors are, I asked my recruiter who else got laid off. He gave me the names of 3 of us, but left out a 4th contractor that had just been hired a week ago. The 3 of us are all Black, and the 4th contractor is Pakistani.

I was told by my contractor that the decision was based on a last -in/ first out policy, based on a reduction in work and business need. My recruiter noted that he had never heard of a Data Center having a slow-down of that sort, and I also noted that when I left last Friday, we were actually backed up on work orders.

If that is so, and if we 3 contractors had no performance based issues, then why were we let go, while the contractor who has only been there a week, kept his job?

Because of this action, there are now no Black employees with my former team (a team of twenty five, including one supervisor who is black).

Is this discrimination?

Thanks

 

[adjusterjack]

Hard to tell.

Layoff 3 and keep 1. Could be economic.

Layoff 3 members of an ethnic minority and keep 1 member of an ethnic minority. Anybody's guess.

File with the EEOC and see how far you get.

Meantime file for unemployment if you are eligible.

 

[cbg]

Let's put it this way.

It is by no means clear cut discrimination. Being a member of a so-called protected class doesn't mean you can't be laid off; it means you can't be selected for lay off because of that class.

 

[hrforme]

And it is very possible that the 4th in employee made a lower rate per hour in wages than the three of you and that would be a reasonable explanation as to why they laid certain people off (and have nothing to do with race). Does the 4th work under the same contracting company? If it is a different one, it is very possible they negotiated a better/lower rate.

So I agree that there could be other issues that explain their reasoning or it could be racial discrimination. That said, it's hard to fathom that they would be so blatant.

 

[army judge]

And it is very possible that the 4th in employee made a lower rate per hour in wages than the three of you and that would be a reasonable explanation as to why they laid certain people off (and have nothing to do with race). Does the 4th work under the same contracting company? If it is a different one, it is very possible they negotiated a better/lower rate.

So I agree that there could be other issues that explain their reasoning or it could be racial discrimination. That said, it's hard to fathom that they would be so blatant.

A certain presidential candidate spent 18 months speaking about that which victimized you, mate.

There are many "isms", most of them harmful.

You (and your colleagues) may have been victimized by racism, but you WERE victimized by GLOBALISM.

Hopefully, this country fights GLOBALISM better than it has RACISM.

Otherwise, the thing that victimized you, is sure to victimize others.

Globalism is an equal opportunity destroyer.

 

[Betty3]

It's hard to say in your case if there was any racial discrimination. You can file a discrimination complaint with the Illinois Dept. of Human Rights or the federal EEOC & let them investigate.

 

[mightymoose]

Were the people laid off actually the last ones hired as they said is the policy? If so any discrimination claim is dead in the water.

 

[ElleMD]

Way too little to go on to say it is discrimination of any kind, especially since you were there such a short time and only a temp to begin with. Everything you have heard is second hand at best and may or may not be accurate. I very much doubt you or even the recruiter know the company's strategy, workload, other agencies they might be working with, or financials.