
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 14, 1994                   TAG: 9404140333
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NAACP: WORKERS SUFFER DISCRIMINATION, AND 'IT'S VERY SERIOUS'

Four regional officials of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held meetings in Roanoke last week at the request of the local NAACP, and heard complaints of racial, age and gender discrimination from about 60 Roanoke Valley workers.

"The EEOC saw we had a very serious problem in the workplace," said the Rev. Charles Green, president of the Roanoke branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "They were saying that, from a racial standpoint, it's very serious."

The meetings at the Poff Federal Building and at the Staunton Avenue Church of God were private, and Green said he could not divulge details of the cases discussed. He said there were allegations of unlawful firings, racial double standards, verbal abuse and intimidation at several places of work in the Roanoke Valley.

In one case, he said, white workers at one place of business came in 10 minutes late or not at all on icy days last winter and suffered no adverse consequences, whereas a black woman delayed by an automobile wreck on her way to work was written up for tardiness. Three writeups can trigger dismissal by some employers, he said, even if one of the writeups was for being just two minutes late.

Some black employees told the EEOC officials that they were turned away when they inquired about advertised jobs and then learned that jobs had been made available to whites, Green said.

EEOC officials at the meetings were Gloria Underwood, director of the Richmond office, and the director, enforcement manager and supervisory investigator of the Baltimore regional office, which covers Virginia.

Underwood said any charges of discrimination would be filed with the EEOC by aggrieved individuals, not by the EEOC itself. Green said complaints will be lodged by some of the people at the meetings.

Staff writer Kevin Daniels contributed information for this story.

by CNB