A black female employee filed a complaint against her employer because she believes that she was being treated unfairly in comparison to other white male co-workers. She believes that she was the victim of discrimination because of her gender. The manufacturing engineer II Texas employee was originally hired by Bucyrus, which was later purchased by Caterpillar. According to her complaint, when the two companies merged, she was demoted to the position of manufacturing engineer I. Allegedly, her white male co-workers were able to retain their positions.
When it came time for raises, the woman stated that she was only given a minor bonus and pay increase, which was the same across the board for all those in her same position. However, those who were manufacturing engineer II received a much better increase, and she believes that, had she retained her position, she would have been eligible for the higher raise. The following year, she claims that her superiors told her that she would not be receiving an increase because she was already being paid the highest amount for her position.
The plaintiff claims she was also given an unreasonable number of assignments even after she was short a worker on the project. She told her supervisors of the situation, but they still told her to continue at the same pace. The woman alleges that she also was scheduled to have required meetings with her supervisors according to company action plan. In her lawsuit, she says that the meetings were cut short, avoided and, as time progressed, many of them never happened.
According to her suit, the woman was terminated because she was slow and not keeping in line with her action plan. The plaintiff filed a complaint against Caterpillar, claiming gender and race discrimination. She further accuses the company of violating the Texas Labor Code and Equal Pay Act. Employees who feel that they are not being treated equally or fairly on the basis of sex or race may choose to file a complaint against their employer. Based upon the individual circumstances of the case, a worker may be awarded monetary damages and be able to return to work, if applicable.
Source: The Southeast Texas Record, “Woman says race, gender caused her to lose engineering job at Caterpillar“, Kelly Holleran, Aug. 19, 2014
Source: The Southeast Texas Record, “Woman says race, gender caused her to lose engineering job at Caterpillar“, Kelly Holleran, Aug. 19, 2014
