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twitterFeds sue Forum Shops over alleged discrimination
Commission seeking injunction, monetary damages for former workers
Published Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | 12:30 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | 6:03 p.m.
Related Document (.pdf)
The Forum Shops at Caesars
A federal agency has sued the owner of the Forum Shops at Caesars, charging that three to four years ago, Hispanic janitors there were subjected to discrimination including racial slurs.
Simon Property Group Inc. of Indianapolis, owner of the mall on the Las Vegas Strip, was sued in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Tuesday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Simon on Wednesday strongly denied the allegations against it and criticized the EEOC's filing of the suit more than two years after the complaints were first investigated.
The EEOC said it sued on behalf of Enrique Bautista, Hugo Erives, Jose Gutierrez, Rigoberto Gutierrez and others similarly situated.
The lawsuit said the janitors were subjected to "harassment resulting in a hostile work environment based on their national origin (Hispanic/Latino.)"
"The unlawful employment and discriminatory practices include but are not limited to physical intimidation and verbal harassment ... by repeated use of the term 'wetback' and other derogatory comments directed against them based on their national origin," the lawsuit charged.
Santos Albarran, a program analyst at the EEOC district office in Los Angeles, said in an interview that the alleged discrimination took place in 2005 and 2006 and that none of the custodial workers named in the complaint are still working at the Forum Shops.
Albarran said a supervisor allegedly involved in the discrimination had been terminated by the Forum Shops, in part because of the racial harassment claims.
Simon Property Group officials have previously told the EEOC they addressed the problem, Albarran said.
But the agency sued "to make sure it does not happen again," he said.
The EEOC is seeking an injunction against Simon forbidding it from discriminating against employees on the basis of national origin as well as monetary damages for the affected workers, Albarran said.
But Simon spokesman Les Morris in Indianapolis called the complaint "wholly without merit" and "over-reaching."
"We find it distressing that the federal EEOC would evaluate this case for over two years in isolation without seeking our input," he said in a statement.
"What makes the federal action even more preposterous is that in 2006, after a prompt and thorough investigation of these same facts, the Nevada Equal Rights Commission issued a finding of no probable cause and dismissed the action. The EEOC has failed to specify any new or additional facts that would justify ignoring the no probable cause finding of the state agency," Morris said.
"It is critical to understand that none of the complainant's were fired or suffered any of loss of pay or any other adverse employment action, consistent with the Nevada Equal Right Commission's finding of no probable cause,'' Morris said. "We are acutely dismayed by this filing because Simon prides itself as being an employer of choice, treating its employees with respect and in full accordance with all fair employment laws."
"We look forward to vigorously defending ourselves," Morris said.
Simon's code of corporate conduct specifically prohibits discrimination.
"The company is committed to providing a work environment that is free from any form of discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, creed, religion, age, disability or sexual orientation. It is our policy to provide equal opportunity to all employees with regard to hiring, pay rates, training and development, promotions, and other terms of employment. Employment decisions will comply with all applicable employment laws.
"The company will not tolerate harassment, including sexual harassment, in any form. This includes verbal or physical conduct that demeans or threatens any employee, creates a hostile work environment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or otherwise adversely affects an individual's employment," the code says.
Simon in March was named the most admired company in the nation in the real estate industry by Fortune magazine. Those rankings are based on factors including social responsibility. Simon has also been honored for its Youth Foundation, which works to advance educational opportunities, career development and life skills for at-risk youth around the country.
Simon is the nation's largest mall owner. Besides the Forum Shops, its Las Vegas properties are the Las Vegas Outlet Center and the Las Vegas Premium Outlets.
Discussion: 23 comments so far…
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They don't discriminate if your illegal either.
This is what you call opening Panora's Box to look for an excuse to reject future applicants in fear of this suit being repeated. The Hispanics just hurt themselves by this suit.
Solution: Just quit hiring hispanics. Then you won't have to worry about being sued. Hire only whites or blacks and make sure they are legals.
I hope the rest of the strip follows this lawsuit and see that they are taking a chance of being sued if they hire one of these south of the boarder races.
Just hire Americans and you won't have to worry about a law suit.
Point well made.
obviously everybody who has made a comment is white....u guys are idiots :)
Hey LasVegas2009, go crawl back under your rock. Hispanic-Americans are Americans and we're as diversified according to socioeconomic and educational level as any group. We're the fastest growing 'minority' in the US, baby, so if you and your brethren with your overtly racist views don't like it, then you're in trouble.
The problem here is American companies hiring folks who aren't legally here. (Everyone should be here legally.) They hire them because they just want to work and accomplish the American dream.
Now after making the first mistake of hiring undocumented workers a company mistreats it's employees and doesn't afford them their dignity, then that's a double shame on them.
This ain't about 'illegals'; this is about the abuses of companies who benefit tremendously from cheap labor.
Comprende? You dumb [expletive].
Come on People! That language isn't acceptable in any situation. Any supervisor stupid enough to talk to employees like that should be fired. If the company didn't take immediate action, they should have to pay for letting it continue. You have to be kidding me. Who talks to people like that? Completely inhumane and unacceptable to abuse people like that.
people who abuse the system to cheat their way for money they shoudln't be getting here deserve dignity?
they do something illegal, but complain when something is done to them that is illegal? /laughs
don't get me wrong, discrimination should never happen, but what's that saying, getting that log out of your own eye before you pick a spec out of someone else's eye.
i wouldn't expect any malls to be going on a hiring boom anytime soon.
Nowhere in this article does it say that these were illegal aliens. I am a passionate conservative and I am very much against illegal immigration. That being said, only a scumbag would talk to people this way. This is not about what illegal aliens deserve. If this man is talking to these workers that way, do you think he's going to treat anyone else with respect or dignity? I hate a bully.
I love to listen to the ignorant rants about Hispanics not belonging here, 'legal' or otherwise. In a move worthy of Dick Cheney, the Texans and ol' Teddy stole the entire southwest on false pretenses.
Then passed a law kicking all Hispanics out of the country.
Oh the irony that culture can overcome politics and retake the southwest. Just don't make me speak any Spanish, I failed that course miserably in junior high.
Were those employees citizens or illegals?
This lawsuit simply proves how lame the EEOC is.
In the real world, for the 99% of discrimination cases filed with them, EEOC fails to act, and just issues letters to the complaining parties telling them to go ahead, get a lawyer, and sue on their own.
The EEOC should be on the top of the list, at budget cutting time, because they do not come anywhere near fulfilling the purpose for which they are created.
it would be nice if these discussions were somewhat civil. lots of personal issues here! I agree that almost none of the feds are worthwhile. i once was one and in my experience they were worse than any one could even imagine. however, can't we just get along?
Simon is the same company that was or still is involved with the lawsuit from their own tenant, OPM or whatever that club is called now.
Since that club's patrons are typically black, the mall owners decided to cut-off primary access to the club (through the mall, which they never did before), and divert all of the crowd outside/around the mall and in through a back door.
You think that would happen if it was Puck-Chinois holding a late night, after-hours event, instead of the hip-hop club? LOL.
Seems like a pattern here...
If what the latest census says is true and that by the year 2040 or so, white americans will be a minority in this country. How many discrimination suits will clog up the courts then?
civil discussion in ignorant Las Vegas? you're expecting too much . only 12% of Nevada has a Bachelor's degree, many have no high school diploma. History? knowledge ? empathy? not in the mississippi of the south
Jees guys, if these guys were illegals I highly doubt they would be willingly complaining to the labor departments and filing complaints to the federal EEOC.
Kinda shameful that whenever someone has a hispanic name the trolls start crawling out of the wood works shouting "Illegals!!". It's seems it's the same mindset that put these people in a hostile work environment in the first place.
"Solution: Just quit hiring hispanics. Then you won't have to worry about being sued. Hire only whites or blacks and make sure they are legals.
I hope the rest of the strip follows this lawsuit and see that they are taking a chance of being sued if they hire one of these south of the boarder races.
Just hire Americans and you won't have to worry about a law suit." - LasVegas2009
So you're saying that hispanics aren't Americans? That's the equivalent of saying blacks aren't Americans because of their ancestry or color.
Open your mind and admit you're ignorant.
These very "south of the border races" you talk down on will be the majority in a few years.
I wouldn't doubt for one moment that this hotel or any other hotel in the strip are hiring "illegals" I'm, sure these people are among them. I guess they feel they can say anything,do anything to them. Legal or illegal all employees should be respected. If hiring illegals is your issue, don't hire them.But don't use it as an excuse to do otherwise with your employees.
If the EEOC were suddenly taking cases on behalf of undocumented workers, you can be sure the reporter would have said so.
The comment that poisoned this thread assumes anyone with an Hispanic surname is not "American." If life hasn't taught "LasVegas2009" any better than that, there's nothing people commenting here can do to help him.
Other comments suggest that anyone who works here without papers DESERVES to be abused. As we can't give LasVegas2009 a brain, we can't give other folks the morals or the conscience they have failed to grow on their own.
I would just like to say that I do believe they should hire Americans and they would avoid lawsuits but who is to say that only whites or blacks are Americans. I myself am American but I'm also Mexican hence the fact that my username has the word CHICANA in it meaning that I'm a Mexican American. My family has been in America for the last 100 years and my lastname is a Mexican lastname but I look nothing at all like I'm from Mexico, I look white. However just because of my last name I get criticized before people even see me. So my whole point is you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover nor by some of the pages in it, read it and find out everything before you make your judgements.
Regardless of situation.....the alleged comments are unacceptable