The Truth about Discrimination Lawsuits

After researching various court cases and scenarios, I have concluded that as far as any "at will" employment state, discrimination lawsuits are hard to win.  The following is not legal advice, but it may assist you in your next steps.

About the Time constraints:
1) You only have to around 180 days to file an EEOC complaint. You also still need to be an employee when you file an EEOC charge unless its a final retaliation complaint. The state department of Labor may be able to get your job back if you are terminated. The state department of Labor has a separate complaint process from the EEOC.

2) Once you receive a "right to sue" letter, you have 90 days to file the lawsuit in District court.  Unfortunately, many people are so emotionally traumatized by the workplace aggression that they can barely keep a family and work life balanced.   So adding a lawsuit to their list of things to do, is often overbearing. In addition, they are confused as to why the Human Resource department is allowing the mistreatment to go on.

About Human Resources:
1) Some human resource departments are solely in existence to protect the company.  So if your manager is a "jerk," human resource departments will do everything they can to prevent the company from paying for the mistakes of your manager.  The HR dept and the company attorneys will distort the truth, exaggerate the truth, and possibly outright "lie" if they need to avoid costing the company a lawsuit.

2) Sometimes the company's Human Resources department has high turnover itself.  Therefore it may have more employee "placeholders" than they have actual competent staff members.

About Employment Law Attorneys:
1) If you are a single employee making less than $25,000 per year (25K USD per year), then even if you win your discrimination case, the damages awarded may not be sufficient enough for the attorney to put their time into the case.

2) Class action discrimination lawsuits are more attractive to the attorney because there are more plaintiffs and more money on the table against one employer defendant.

About hiring and promotions in "at-will" employment state:
1)  Preferential treatment is NOT illegal.

2) Even if you are significantly more qualified than the person hired for the position, the hiring manager can still give a subjective opinion such as "the personality was a better fit for the position."  This may be a reasonable excuse for placing someone less qualified in a position from a legal standpoint.  No, it does not sound fair, but the employment law in an at-will state is not designed to help the employee. The employers know that the "ball" is in their court.


About Equal Employment Opportunity:  Don't count on it.

Especially not at Carolinas Healthcare System, one of the largest employers in the North Carolina Western region.

If you are considering working for Carolinas Healthcare System, you should find out the answers to the following questions:

1) What is their CHS employee turnover rate?
2) What is the average seniority of their employees? five years?
3) What is the employee retention rate?  (a duplicate way of asking the previous questions)
4)  How many EEOC complaints have been filed against CHS over the last ten years?
5)  How many CHS employees completed their internal Grievance Resolution Process and how successful is the program to the employee?
6) What is the percentage of part-time (< 24 hours a week) employees versus full-time employees?
7) Will your opinion really matter? Since they are a multi-billion dollar company where employees are considered disposable.

I have posted several articles describing inconsistencies and unfair treatment.  As a former CHS employee who was laid off after seven years of service, my opinion did not matter. Sure, part of the CHS corrective action has been to separate individuals from the company.  This action solves their immediate problem, but their real source of employment problems are still on the CHS payroll.

I am hoping to land a screenplay or movie deal.  It has been one amazing ride . . .

Carolinas Healthcare System Accused of Failure to Promote

In a race discrimination claim involving the failure to promote, an employee plaintiff must show the following.
1) Employee is in a protected class.
2) Employee applied for the position.
3) Employee was qualified for the position.
4) Employee was rejected for the position.
5) The position was filled by similarly qualified applicant outside of a protected class.

Supporting evidence is as follows.

1) About the employee:
My race is Black which is a protected class.  I had five years seniority with Carolinas Healthcare System as a hairdresser when the budgeted hairdresser position became available.

2) Position posting and application for position:
I questioned Carolinas Healthcare System Human Resources why the hairdresser position had to be posted.  Their response was that they prefer that all vacanies be posted.  So I applied for the hairdresser position.  The position description was so vague that the number of online applications had to be closed within a week because of the overwhelming response of applicants. 

3) Employee qualification:
I was already successfully working some of the hours of the position in the interim while they conducted interviews.  I even interviewed the candidate that got hired because I was filling in for my co-worker on the day of the candidate's interview.  Of course, I had no idea that the woman was applying for the hairdresser position that I was inline for until the middle of the interview.  This was a total conflict of interest, but it shows that the staff felt confident enough for me to interview the candidate, but my manager who is no longer with the company did not want to grant me the position.

4) Employee rejection:
I was interviewed briefly by my manager for the position.  There was no one else in the room, but she and I.  The "faux" interview lasted about three minutes.  I do not even remember what we even talked about.  I did not bring a resume because I was already an employee performing the work for the last five years.  She was probably my fourth manager within five years.  I naturally assumed that the extra hours that I was putting in showed my commitment to the position.

5) The position was filled.
So the White woman that I had interviewed got the position. She was one of the first people interviewed.  She had a "desk job" at a different CHS facility.  She could not begin the hairdresser position immediately because of her committment to the other CHS position.  Of course, I discontinued working the extra hours which was overbearing on my other co-worker who had to take up the slack.  I told my manager if she wanted me to work the extra hours, then all she had to do was just ask and I would help out again.  Of course, she never asked.  Why have me work extra hours when I was not good enough in her opinion to be granted the position.

Most HR professionals have advised me that Carolinas Healthcare System should have granted both me and the newly hired hairdresser budgeted positions.  The positions were part-time positions.  The salary range was around $9 per hour to $15 per hour max.  Of course, why would a multi-billion dollar public organization create an extra part-time job position to keep the peace within the organization?

Makeup Artistry by Benita Blocker

Makeup Artistry by Benita Blocker, May 2014

 Makeup Artistry by Benita Blocker, May 2014

As a makeup artist, I prefer to deliver lightweight and natural finishes.  I do not offer the lash extensions; therefore stage/performance makeup is not my specialty. 

I enjoyed the opportunity to serve as Makeup Artist for the Star Power Charity Mothers Day Makeover 2014.  I teamed up with other warmhearted hair stylists to deliver an uplifting day for both the mothers receiving the makeovers as well as for all the volunteers involved.  It just felt good to give back to the community!

CHS Personnel Files Reflect Inconsistencies

As stated in my previous article, I made an appointment a week in advance to see my Carolinas Healthcare System personnel file.   I was taken care of by a courteous CHS staff.  They allowed me to take notes, but no photocopying was allowed.

My personnel file stated the following:

My last date worked: 8/6/2012
My Termination Date:  8/7/2012
Action Date: 9/5/2012
Termination Reason: Staff Reduction
Eligible for Rehire? Yes

In actuality, my last date worked was 8/1/2012 as confirmed by my unsigned separation agreement.

And my termination date was August 6, 2012 which represents the end of the pay period.  This date was also stated on my unsigned separation agreement.

So why did my CHS Personnel record reflect August 6th as my last date worked?  I was not even in Charlotte, NC on August 6, 2012.  They took my badge on August 1, 2012.  They did not even allow me to clock myself out on the time clock.  They even had a CHS security officer present.

Also, why would my termination date be stretched out to August 7, 2012 with an action date of September 5, 2012?

From my research, the action date and the termination date are usually the same.  So why was my action date over a month later?

So here's my thoughts:  My White co-worker was out on medical leave.  CHS decided to lay me off before I flew out for my Sisterlocks training course.  Of course, this was prior to my White co-worker's return to work.  I was assured by the CHS attorney that my White co-worker was also going to be laid off when she returned to work from medical leave .

I believe that my White co-worker returned to work around September 5, 2012, and at that point, CHS laid off both she and I at the same time for record keeping purposes.  EXCEPT my work status was just sitting on the books in limbo from August 6, 2012 to September 2012.  Why?

I believe that CHS Human Resources did not want the situation to look like they laid off the Black woman (being me) a month before laying off my White co-worker.  But actually, Carolinas Healthcare System did lay me off a month before my White co-worker.  I filed an EEOC complaint when this all happened so it is documented as racial discrimination as well as retaliation.

So in a nutshell, Carolinas Healthcare System personnel records may reflect inconsistencies in dates.

These inconsistencies are disappointing.  The integrity of the CHS Human Resources is quite questionable.  I have a phone call out to the CHS Human Resources representative about these inconsistencies.  I have not heard back from them as of the time of writing this article.

CHS grants Favorable Eligibility for Rehire

So I made an appointment to view my Carolinas Healthcare System's personnel file.  The friendly CHS staff escorted me to a workroom. There were several document icons on the computer desktop available for me to click and read upon arrival.  These icons included my years of successful performance appraisals, and my termination summary.

The reason for my termination was "staff reduction." (This means layoff.)

Eligible for Rehire? YES! 

Of course, I caught myself from rolling out my chair in laughter.

There was nothing else in my "public" personnel file.  It took me hours to process this information considering my unsigned separation agreement which was not a part of this personnel record stated:

"In exchange for the Severance payments and other consideration provided hereunder by CHS, Employee agrees not to re-apply for employment with CHS or any of its affiliates, successors, or managed entities."

So for under $1,500.00 - CHS, being the largest employer in this region, wanted me to never apply at any of their facilities ever again.  But since, I did not take the thousand dollar offer, I continued to be eligible to work for them?  Yet, they refused to offer me an opportunity to be an independent contractor with their attorneys stating that it was futile to seek such an opportunity.

I find that the messages delivered over the years have been contradictory in nature. It has been reported that the Chief Human Resources Officer's salary is over one million a year, but I am assuming from my limited correspondence with her years ago up until present that she is not micro-managing the Human Resources department.

My grievance is centered around failure to be promoted to a budgeted part-time hairdresser position.  If I encountered this kind of drama at this lower level position, it would be safe to say that the organization has much larger problems unless you are at the executive level.

The US Department of Labor supposedly have investigated Carolinas Healthcare System because CHS co-owns their MedCost employee benefits management company.  This relationship can be considered a conflict of interest.

Between the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the US Department of Labor, I find both government agencies tread lightly regarding Carolinas Healthcare System.

My surprisingly favorable eligibility for rehire may stem from me not having any write-ups  nor poor evaluations.  I only begged for fair treatment and equal employment opportunity. I was subjected to repeated failures to promote while watching them bring in one White hairdresser after the next by the end of my seven years of service.

I have repeatedly asked Carolinas Healthcare System to resolve this wrong, and their past response has been that I have no legal right to anything except to apply for other CHS jobs since I did not accept the separation agreement.

I understand that many of the people associated with all the workplace drama  that I encountered are no longer with the company, but how does that compensate me for the mental anguish, the emotional distress, the failure to be promoted based on employee discrimination, and periodic retaliation?

My Church of Christ Experience

I was repeatedly invited by one of my retail clients to attend her church: Sugar Creek Church of Christ.  She was so excited about her faith and her church, and she met a wonderful God fearing man at this church who is now her husband.  Well, I felt compelled to check this church out!

It was an amazing church.  It was much larger in size than I imagined.  The members were very welcoming.  I even got a visitor gift bag with a Faith based book and church information.  I was also told that this church was the largest Church of Christ in Charlotte.

Well, I was born Southern Baptist, and I have been a member of quite of few mega Baptist churches so I know what I am used to for church services.  Surprisingly, the Church of Christ does not have choirs.  The Church of Christ congregation has a song leader, but the church as a whole is the choir.  Sometimes the men carry a verse and the women layer their voices and then the song leader/conductor adds another layer to the song.  There's no fighting for the solo spot like some church choirs have challenges with.

Many of the songs are hymns.  I liked this simple traditional approach to worshiping in song.

Also, communion is served every Sunday!  There's no more excuses like "missing the 2nd Sunday communion."  You can break the bread and sip the "juice" on any Sunday that you attend.

In addition, baptism is a no wait decision.  I was almost in shock because after the pastor's sermon, a man came forward for baptism.  In my own "Baptist thinking" mind,  I assumed that he will be assigned a later date for baptism, but oh no, at the Church of Christ, you are prepped for baptism immediately and before the church service is over, you are submerged into the Baptism pool and welcomed into the church.

This church is no joke.  If you want to be closer to God or Christ, they are a "right now" type of church.

I truly value my Church of Christ experience, and I enjoyed the message from their pastor there.  I look forward to my next visit.  I am not committed to fellowshipping at any church on a regular basis at this time, but the Sugar Creek Christ of Christ is at the top of my list of churches to worship.  If you are in the Charlotte area, then you should check it out too!

Vehicle Accidents Picture Collection

This is an on-going collection of photos similar to my movie ratings article on this blog.  I will update this article as I get new photos.  Stay tuned!

Center City Charlotte, NC Accident, August 2013

Huntersville, NC - April 2014

December 2014, Huntersville, NC