(FOX 9) – The Minnesota Department of Human Rights has announced two separate settlements with workplaces over findings of “blatant workplace discrimination” that violated the state’s civil rights laws.
Sex discrimination settlements
What we know:
The department has announced Lakes Concrete Plus, located in Bemidji, will pay a former employee $45,000 for lost wages and implement changes to create a workplace free from discrimination after it found that it had told them that driving a concrete truck was not “women’s work.”
After a comprehensive investigation by the department, the company was found to have violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act when it fired her because she was a woman, the department says.
A separate investigation determined that Key Lime Air, which operates flight services in Thief River Falls, violated the act as well when the company refused to hire a qualified job applicant for a flight attendant position because he is a man.
During the investigation, Key Lime Air acknowledged its practice of only hiring women as flight attendants because the company believed women are “better” than men for the position.
Under the settlement, the company will pay the former job applicant $45,000 for damages, and ensure its workplace policies do not discriminate against job applicants and employees in Minnesota.
What they’re saying:
“In Minnesota, we know that work should provide for food and warmth in our homes and our communities, not discrimination. And we’ve worked hard to eliminate the notion that certain jobs ought to be performed by a woman or a man. Yet, these two cases demonstrate that there is still work left to do,” said Minnesota Department of Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero in a statement accompanying the settlements. “Minnesota’s civil rights laws require workplaces to proactively prevent and address discrimination because both employers and employees are stronger when civil rights laws are followed.”
Sex discrimination in Minnesota
The backstory:
The Minnesota Human Rights Act requires employers to “prevent and address sex discrimination so that employees and job applicants can live, work, and be free from discrimination.”
The Minnesota Department of Human Rights is the state’s civil rights enforcement agency and is responsible for its enforcement.
The department says approximately 22% of Minnesotans who file charges with it allege sex discrimination.
The Source: Information provided by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.
