Gonnella Baking Co., a Chicago-area baking company,  will pay $350,000 to settle a national origin harassment and retaliation suit  filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Oppor­tunity Commission (EEOC), the agency  announced today. The company will also  be subject to a four-year consent decree, under which it will be required to  report any further complaints of discrimination or retaliation to the EEOC and to  provide training about employment discrimination law to its managers and other employees.

In its suit, the EEOC charged that Gonnella tolerated  harassment of employees of Mexican national origin by a manager at its Aurora, Ill.,  facility and, when a number of those employees complained about the harassment,  the manager retaliated against them by subjecting them to further verbal harassment,  longer hours, and harsher working conditions.  The EEOC sought relief for a class of seven  employees, four of whom intervened in the suit as plaintiffs.

John Rowe, EEOC district director in  Chicago, said  that the EEOC’s investigation revealed that the Gonnella manager routinely made  derogatory anti-Mexican comments to several sanitation employees of Mexican  national origin. After some of these  employees complained about the mis­treatment, the manager required the  employees to work longer hours, with a number of shifts exceed­ing 12 hours and  on one occasion reaching as much as 19 hours, according to Rowe. According to the employees, the manager  warned them against making further complaints, telling one employee that if the  employee complained to the company’s human resources department, she was “going  to pay for it.”

The EEOC’s lawsuit was brought under  Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits national origin  discrimination and retaliation in employment.  Harassment of employees or alteration of the conditions of their employment  is unlawful if it is motivated by the employees’ national origin or race or if  it is done in retaliation for complaints about discrimination.

“The derogatory language and other  harassment directed at the employees in this case are entirely inappropriate in  the workplace,” said John Hendrickson, the EEOC’s regional attorney in Chicago. “Gonnella failed to take action to address  this conduct, despite numerous complaints about this manager from several different  employees. As this case illustrates, employers  who do not live up to their obligation to put a stop to employment  discrimination expose themselves to substantial financial consequences and  ongoing scrutiny.”

The EEOC’s lawsuit was filed on September 15, 2008, in the U.S.  District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (EEOC v. Gonnella Baking Co., Case No 08-cv-5240). The consent decree resolving the case was  approved today by U.S. District Judge John W. Darrah. The case had been set to go to trial on April  12, 2010. In addition to requiring Gonnella  to pay damages to seven individuals and to pay attorney fees to intervening  plaintiffs, the decree contains an injunction prohibiting Gonnella from  engaging in further discrimination on the basis of national origin, race, or  retaliation.