Two companies face discrimination suits

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2000 | 11:43 a.m.

Two race discrimination lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court Monday, one against Albertson's and the other against Toys R Us.

Pamela Winters, a black Las Vegas resident, claims in her lawsuit that she was demoted from service deli manager to deli clerk after she complained to Albertson's corporate headquarters about a series of discriminatory acts.

Eventually, Winter's lawsuit states, the harassment became so bad she was forced to resign in June 1998.

Winters claims in her lawsuit that her manager once refused to hire a black woman that she had recommended for the job because the service deli was "looking like the United Nations."

The same manager also required employees to follow black customers around his store and even had code phrases to alert employees as to when a customer should be watched, the lawsuit alleges.

In one instance, Winters heard the phrase "brother in liquor" only to learn it was her husband who was to be surveilled.

Winters claims racist employees purposely recoded items to make it appear as though she was selling spoiled items and she was falsly accused of working off the clock.

Albertson's officials were not available for comment this morning.

In the Toys R Us lawsuit, 24-year employee Sam Mitchell claims he was fired from the company's Maryland Parkway store in December 1998 because of a systemic attempt by the company to keep blacks out of upper management.

According to the lawsuit, Mitchell was fired in part because other black managers would come to him for advice about the poor treatment they were getting from Toys R Us officials.

Mitchell claims in his lawsuit that Toys R Us gives black managers smaller stores with smaller sales, slows the promotion process for blacks and purposely gives black managers poor annual reviews.

"It can be demonstrated that these discriminatory practices and procedures against blacks exist and are followed at the national, regional and local levels of the Toys R Us organization," the lawsuit states.

"Toys R Us requires management personnel to undergo psychological and intelligence testing and has used the results to justify the termination or forced resignation of black managers, including the so very few who attain regional and national positions," the lawsuit continues.

Mitchell states in his lawsuit that Toys R Us held a regional meeting in 1994 so the complaints of black managers could be addressed, but they were not.

"Rather, it appears that Toys R Us used the black focus group to identify the dissatisfied black management personnel," the lawsuit states.

Toys R Us officials were unavailable for comment today.