A white supervisor was alleged to have used an offensive racial slur in the presence of two African American employees of the City of West Palm Beach, referring to both of them as “black monkeys.”

In October 2017 the City of West Palm Beach agreed to settle the discrimination lawsuit by paying the employee $125,000, while denying allegations.

If you need any assistance in handling race discrimination or derogatory comments made by a manager or supervisor or employee concerning your Florida business, please promptly email or call the Law Office of David Miklas, P.A. at 1-772-465-5111.

You can read more of our employment law articles on our legal updates page.

If you know a Florida business owner or Florida human resources professional who would benefit from this article, please share it with one click to social media or email.

Law Office of David Miklas, P.A.

Labor & Employment law - Employers only

The black employee immediately filed a complaint with the employer’s human resources department about the racial discrimination and the white supervisor was subsequently fired, but later reinstated following arbitration.

The black employee claimed that after he filed the complaints about the race discrimination, “harassing” behavior continued.  The black employee claimed that white employees were also given favorable treatment and that he was targeted by supervisors by being moved to a less than desirable work shift, passed over for promotions and paid less than other white employees with less experience and eventually fired two months after making his complaint of race discrimination.

The employee filed a charge of discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging race discrimination, and later filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against the City of West Palm Beach in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in and for Palm Beach County, Florida, in Case No. 502014 CA010500 XXXXMBAO, asserting two counts of violations of the Florida Civil Rights Act.

Calling black employees monkeys?