Lawsuit against airport advances

Wednesday, April 21, 2004 | 9:23 a.m.

A federal judge has dismissed the religious discrimination aspect of a lawsuit regarding the promotion process at McCarran International Airport but says questions remain about whether there had been racial discrimination.

The lawsuit was filed by airport services worker Michael Jordan as a complaint of employment discrimination against Clark County Aviation Department management in May 1999. Jordan alleges he was passed up for promotion five times because he is black and not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In his March order U.S. District Judge Philip Pro ruled there was not enough evidence to prove Jordan was discriminated against because of his religious preference, but that there were material questions about whether Jordan was passed up for promotion on the basis of race.

Pro scheduled a trial for Aug. 9 to decide whether the other issues in the case have merit, including Jordan's complaints of racial discrimination, retaliation and a hostile work environment based on race.

Jordan alleges in the lawsuit that he was individually discriminated against when he was passed up for promotion and that the way promotions in general are handled at McCarran is discriminatory, Jordan's attorney, Kathleen England, said.

He said that 75 percent of the airport's top 12 managers are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including Director Randy Walker, and that most managers are white while lower-level workers are black.

"The entire promotional process relies most heavily on interview panels and interview boards," England said. "Those don't test for the real skills that you need to do the job.

"It ends up being a complete sham, and they hire who they like," England said. "Over the years there has been a horrific lack of blacks getting promoted."

England has two similar lawsuits currently in discovery for airport workers Ostean Demps III and Roosevelt Freeman. England said she voluntarily dropped the religious discrimination issues on both Demps and Freeman's cases and is going forward on the race discrimination issues.

However, England said she planned to appeal Pro's dismissal of the religious discrimination issues in the Jordan case after the trial is finished on the racial discrimination issues.

No one from McCarran International Airport's public relations office returned phone calls Tuesday.