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Trimming number black workers Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/6527603.htmhttp://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/6527603.htm
Posted on Thu, Aug. 14, 2003
Supercuts agrees to settle racial bias case for $3.5 million
BY D.E. LéGER
A former Supercuts manager, who complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about a plan to reduce the number of black employees at the hair salon chain, paved the way for a $3.5 million settlement announced Wednesday.
Richard Quick, of Melbourne, was a regional manager in charge of 76 Supercuts stores in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Puerto Rico when he balked at a Supercuts directive ''to balance the platform'' by trimming the number of black workers employed by the Minneapolis-based chain and was fired, the EEOC said.
In response to a five-year government investigation triggered by Quick's racial bias claims, Supercuts agreed to pay $3.225 million to black employees and job applicants from 1996 to 2001. The balance of the settlement will be used to set up a claims administration and distribution office and other preventive measures.
It is unclear how many employees or job applicants could be affected by the prelitigation settlement. Blacks who applied for jobs or were fired or denied promotion at Supercuts salons in its Eastern region between November 1996 and December 2001 can contact the EEOC to be included in the settlement. The region includes Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico.
PREVENTIVE MEASURES
Supercuts also must post quarter-page advertisements about the discrimination claims in several newspapers and implement preventive measures. They include producing a one-hour training video to be shown to approximately 750 store managers annually over the next three years.
''We're very happy that Supercuts was willing to come to the table and resolve this voluntarily as opposed to doing it through a lawsuit,'' said Michael Farrell, the EEOC's supervisory trial attorney, in a phone interview. ``We thought Mr. Quick was very brave to come forward.''
Supercuts is a division of Minnesota-based Regis Corp., which employs 47,000 people worldwide, and owns, operates and franchises 9,600 hair salons in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Brazil and throughout Europe under brands such as Vidal Sassoon, Jean Louis David, MasterCuts, Regis and Supercuts salons.
CHAIN DISAGREED
''While we disagree with the allegations, the amount of time that elapsed between the original complaint and today made it prohibitive to defend our position,'' said Paul D. Finkelstein, Regis' chief executive, in a statement.
''Taking into consideration the expected legal costs of $2 million to defend our position, as well as our ability to settle this matter at an amount significantly less than the EEOC's original proposal, we felt it was in the best interest of the company and our shareholders to settle,'' he said.
Farrell said the $3.5 million represented a ''significant'' settlement.
However, Coca-Cola agreed to pay more than $192 million to resolve a federal racial discrimination suit in November 2000, and in 1994, Denny's agreed to a $46 million settlement of two massive class-action suits brought by black patrons who complained they had suffered discrimination at the chain's restaurants.
The Herald was unable to reach Quick, 52, Wednesday night.
In a statement, Quick said, ``I am very pleased with the outcome of the EEOC's investigation. People should not be deterred from getting or keeping a job because of the color of their skin.''
Quick began as a stylist at Supercuts in September 1994. He was later promoted to manager, then regional manager in September 1997.
'He was told of a plan to `balance the platform' by reducing the number of African-American employees either through failure to hire or through termination,'' Farrell said. ``He refused to do it.''
After Quick was fired, he filed the EEOC complaint.
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