ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 15, 1997 TAG: 9703170021
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
The person hired would be subject to comment by the plaintiffs and the judge's approval.
A federal judge has issued a sweeping order to prevent racial discrimination at Circuit City Stores and said he will oversee the company's employment practices for five years.
The order by U.S. District Judge James Spencer requires the home electronics chain to adopt what plaintiffs in a discrimination lawsuit said are practices typical of companies its size.
Spencer ordered Circuit City to hire a director of diversity management from outside the company. He said the person hired would be subject to comment by the plaintiffs and his approval.
On Dec. 2, a jury found that Circuit City showed a pattern of discrimination in failing to promote blacks at its Richmond headquarters. About 3,500 people work there, 800 of them black.
Morgan Stewart, a spokesman for Circuit City, said the national retailer will appeal the verdict and Spencer's order.
Richard Sharp, chairman and chief executive officer of the company, said after the jury verdict that Circuit City believed it had done nothing wrong.
Spencer's order ``looks very much like what we requested,'' said Joseph Sellers of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, which brought the case.
``I hope we will finally be able to bring to a close the sorry relationship Circuit City has with its African American employees,'' Sellers said.
Within 30 days of being hired, the director must select a consultant to develop and conduct a diversity training program, Spencer said.
He also ordered the company to develop a program for promotions that includes position descriptions and posting of vacancies. The judge said he would retain jurisdiction over the case for five years and require reports every six months for the first two years and annually thereafter.
The judge upheld $290,000 in compensatory and punitive damages that the trial jury awarded to one current and one former Circuit City employee. He rejected Circuit City's contention that the evidence failed to support a finding of a pattern or practice of discrimination. The company argued that only two of the original 11 plaintiffs prevailed at trial.
Spencer said the jury could have found a pattern of discrimination from statistical evidence that far fewer blacks than could be expected were promoted, from anecdotal testimony by workers who thought they had been discriminated against, and from testimony that promotions were overly subjective.
LENGTH: Medium: 56 linesby CNB