S&H Thomson, Inc., doing business as Stokes-Hodges
Chevrolet Cadillac Buick Pontiac GMC, will pay $140,000 to settle a
race discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The agency
had charged that the Augusta car dealer allowed a white male management
consultant to subject an African American sales manager to a racially
hostile work environment over a four-month period.
The EEOC first filed the suit in April 2009 in U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of Georgia. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit
against S&H Thomson, Inc., the white consultant visited the car
dealership three to four times a week and never missed an opportunity
to make racially derogatory comments towards the black sales manager.
The sales manager was subjected to humiliating and degrading comments
every time the consultant visited the dealership and almost always in
the presence of other people. After the black sales manager complained
about the derogatory comments, two white managers asked the consultant
to stop his discriminatory behavior. The consultant ignored their
requests to cease and continued to make the derogatory comments at
every opportunity.
The consent decree settling the suit, in addition to the monetary
relief of $140,000, includes provisions for equal employment
opportunity training, reporting, and posting of anti-discrimination
notices. In the suit and consent decree, S&H Thomson, Inc., denied
any liability or wrongdoing.