On Wednesday, April 2, 2014, a federal district court approved a settlement to resolve a long-running lawsuit at a hearing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. This case challenged the New York City Board of Education’s discriminatory policies for hiring public school custodians. LDF represents ten African-American and Latino custodians who were denied permanent jobs and, instead, relegated to provisional positions, in which they did the work of permanent custodians but without many of the job benefits.
As part of the settlement, LDF’s clients – along with 49 other individuals who were improperly denied permanent positions because of their race, sex, or national origin – will keep the key job benefits they received under an earlier settlement in this case between the Board of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The agreement also establishes a claims process to provide compensation for incumbent custodians if they lose a school assignment to any of the 59 individuals.
“LDF has been honored to represent the hard-working men and women who care for our City’s public school buildings and to protect their right to a fair workplace free from discrimination,” said LDF Assistant Counsel Ria Tabacco Mar . “We hope this marks the final chapter in this long-running case.”
For background on United States v. New York City Board of Education, see here.
