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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 28, 1995                   TAG: 9506280053
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FORMER BANK WORKER CLAIMS DISCRIMINATION

A former employee of First Union National Bank of Virginia has filed a lawsuit against the company claiming he was the victim of racial discrimination.

Kendrix Easley, who is black, made the allegation in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Roanoke Circuit Court.

According to the claim, Easley, who is seeking $75,000 in damages, was hired by the bank in Roanoke in 1994 as a document preparation specialist. After receiving complimentary reports from his supervisor, the suit claims, Easley was told in 1995 he would have to take a substantial pay cut or be terminated.

When he refused the demotion, the suit alleges, he was terminated.

The lawsuit, filed by Roanoke lawyer Jonathan Rogers, claimed that First Union ``has systematically terminated its African-American employees at a rate that can only be explained by racially-motivated decisions.''

David Scanzoni, a spokesman for First Union, declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit. But he said, ``First Union has an ongoing commitment to the letter and the spirit of equal employment opportunity laws.''

The complaint is the second recently charging discrimination against First Union. Last year, the bank was the subject of similar allegations in a suit filed by Wallace I. Allen, formerly a senior vice president who said he was let go because he is black. A judge has referred the case to mediation.

by CNB