Walgreens Is Sued For Job Bias

The United States has filed an employment discrimination class lawsuit against the Walgreen Company, the Illinois-based national drugstore chain, alleging widespread racial bias against thousands of African American workers.

The chain has two stores in Key West. According to its web site, Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreen Co. “is the nation’s largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2006 sales of $47.4 billion. The company operates 5,584 stores in 47 states and Puerto Rico.”

The suit was filed yesterday by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of a class of African American employees at the chain. The EEOC is responsible for enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination based on race, color, gender (including sexual harassment and pregnancy), religion, national origin, age, disability and retaliation.

The EEOC charges in the suit that Walgreens assigns managers, management trainees, and pharmacists to low-performing stores and to stores in African American communities because of their race. Additionally, the EEOC asserts that Walgreens denies these managers and professionals promotional opportunities based on race – all in violation of federal law.

“This lawsuit demonstrates that the Commission’s focus on systemic cases will be a powerful weapon to tackle obvious as well as subtle forms of race discrimination,” said EEOC Chair Naomi C. Earp. “We will not rest until workplace decision-making is based on merit rather than immutable and irrelevant characteristics, such as race or color.”

Walgreens’ actions were investigated by the Miami and St. Louis District offices of the EEOC after more than 20 current and former employees from around the country complained to the federal agency. The EEOC filed the litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement with Walgreens.

EEOC St. Louis District Director James R. Neely, Jr., said, “Essentially, Walgreens has made store assignments based on race. This policy has served to restrict the opportunities for advancement of African American employees at Walgreens stores nationwide.”

A group of current and former African American managers filed a private lawsuit making similar allegations in June 2005. That lawsuit is currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, and the plaintiffs in that case have asked the court to certify it as a class action.

Johnny Tucker, one of the Walgreens employees who reported the discrimination, said, “Walgreens has erected barriers that hinder qualified African Americans in their pursuit of advancement through promotions and job assignments. Our plea is for our judicial system to take notice and require Walgreens to end discrimination against African Americans in its work force.”

EEOC St. Louis Regional Attorney Robert G. Johnson said the Commission seeks back pay, compensatory and punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief for the class of aggrieved workers. “It is unthinkable in this day and age that a company of Walgreens’ size and reputation would differentiate between its managers based on their race,” he said. “All individuals deserve the freedom to compete in the workplace on a fair and level playing field.”

Walgreen asserted in a statement in response to the EEOC that it had always been fair with its employees and that it is the country's "best-represented retailer in urban areas, and managers of all backgrounds are promoted to senior levels from those locations."

On February 28, EEOC launched its E-RACE Initiative (Eradicating Racism And Colorism from Employment), a national outreach, education, and enforcement campaign focusing on new and emerging race and color issues in the 21st century workplace. In Fiscal Year 2006, the EEOC received 27,238 charges alleging race-based discrimination, accounting for 36 percent of the agency’s private sector caseload. According to the EEOC, historically, race-based charges have been the most frequent type of filing with EEOC offices nationwide. The EEOC says that there has been a substantial increase over the past 15 years in discrimination charge filings based on color, which have risen from 374 in FY 1992 to 1,241 in FY 2006.