Five-star hotels and resorts aim to cater to their guests' every whim and desire. From specially-prepared menus and requested thread counts in bedding to demands for exotic flowers and expensive wines, there is nothing luxury hotels won't do to keep their guests happy. So when a British couple requested being served only by white employees who looked and sounded American, The Ritz Carlton of Naples, Fla., allegedly obliged. The request, like all special demands made by guests of the hotel, reportedly was entered into the hotel's computer system last month, stating that the guest and his family were not to be served by "people of color" or staff members with a "foreign accent." Did the Ritz Carlton go too far by agreeing to such a demand?

According to Wadner Tranchant, a waiter at the hotel, they did.  Tranchant has filed a discrimination suit against the hotel, claiming the hotel denied him of opportunities and income by not allowing him to serve the family. Tranchant also alleges that the Ritz Carlton created a hostile work environment and that working conditions were "abusive." Of Haitian descent, Tranchant claims in his lawsuit that he "was humiliated, embarrassed, frightened, intimidated, subject to undeserved shame and suffered severe emotional distress" after being prevented from serving the couple when they came to dinner at the Ritz Carlton's Grill Restaurant. Tranchant claims that the Ritz Carlton Naples has a long history of discrimination and is seeking $75,000 in damages.

The family, who spent roughly $8,000 during their stay at the Ritz Carlton Naples, won't be returning any time soon. According to the Ritz Carlton, they have been banned from checking into any of the hotels facilities worldwide. The chain is currently reviewing the company's anti-discrimination policies and taking the charges extremely seriously. Spokespeople for Ritz Carlton maintain that while granting their guests' every wish is part of what makes the hotel unique, they would never condone discrimination from their guests or employees.

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Melissa Ross has been awarded $205,506 by a federal jury because, she says, she was wrongly fired because she is black. The jury agreed that Melissa Ross of Jackson was fired because of her race. The jury did not find that officials at the school had retaliated against her.

Though she had asked for $500,000, the jury awarded Ross $40,506 for back pay and benefits, and $165,000 for pain and suffering, according to the verdict returned Tuesday. The state plans to appeal state attorney general office’s spokeswoman Jan Schaefer said in an email. Tom Burnham, state superintendent of education, said in a statement that he and the state Board of Education "are disappointed in the outcome and are weighing our options. We will have no further comment at this time." Ross, who now works at Jim Hill High School, and her attorney, Michael Brown, could not be reached for comment.

According to the lawsuit, Ross was hired at the school as a special education teacher for Family Consumer Science. According to the lawsuit, she was not proficient in sign language at the time but was working to improve. In a 2007 complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Ross said she had been hired in August 2006 and was promoted with a raise in February 2007. But in May of 2007, she was given a bad evaluation because she was not proficient in sign language and was told she would be fired that July, according to the complaint. Also in the complaint, Ross pointed out six black teachers were fired effective July 2007. "To my knowledge there was a white male teacher on probation who was not discharged," Ross said.

Concerns about teachers at the school not being proficient enough in sign language bubbled over on Nov. 28, 2006. About 20 high school students and some teachers protested that four of their 26 teachers were not proficient in sign language. That year, then-state Superintendent of Education Hank Bounds told The Clarion-Ledger his staff had been looking into the incident and the situation shouldn't have escalated to the point of a walkout.

He also noted there was a statewide shortage of about 1,700 teachers, and it had been difficult to find teachers who could sign proficiently. That number had doubled by 2008.  

A startling number of discrimination cases are popping up in temporary employment agencies across the country. The reason?  It is hard to say, but the general thought is that even though these agencies operate on a high-turnover basis and tracking cases of discrimination within them can be nearly impossible, some cases have come to light that point to a larger problem.

Just this week, Melville, a New York-based Olsten temporary agency, settled a lawsuit that started in their Lacrosse, Wisconsin, branch. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged that Olsten Staffing Services blatantly denied Zachary Schaefer a temporary position at Main Street Ingredients, a local food manufacturer, because Schaefer is deaf. The EEOC claimed that the ability to hear was not a clear job requirement, thus making Schaefer a viable candidate for the temporary position. The agency has agreed to pay Schaefer $70,000 in damages and $5,000 in lost pay. The company will also offer their employees training on the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.

It seems some cases where people of color, with disabilities, or of a certain age have been denied jobs by temporary agencies are starting to be better reported. Just the same, well-known companies and trusted businesses are also being taken to court for alleged discrimination lawsuits.

Billion-dollar Internet mega-market eBay is also being sued by a deaf person.  Melissa Earll of Nevada, Montana, claims that due to her disability she is unable to communicate vocally by telephone and therefore is unable to verify her identity with eBay. The federal lawsuit filed this past Tuesday targets eBay’s seller’s registration system that requires would-be sellers to identify themselves via telephone. The lawsuit says that the current system violates the California Disabled Person Act as it excludes deaf and hard-of-hearing patrons from equal opportunities. In addition to damages, the suit is seeking to reform eBay’s current registration system so that people with disabilities can participate as sellers like everyone else.

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Discrimination Lawyer San Francisco

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For 33 years at the Equal Rights Division in Milwaukee, Johnny Kimble devoted his career to helping others facing discrimination. As an employee of the state of Wisconsin, Kimble fought for equality in the workplace for dozens of people. His efforts, however, did not save him from the same kind of discrimination he long fought against. Last month, a federal judge ruled that Kimble, now retired, had been denied raises and promotions because of his race. The judge charged the Department of Workplace Development and the former administrator of the Equal Rights Division with discrimination. Kimble is now awaiting a settlement for back wages in an amount to be determined by the state of Wisconsin.  

The judge reviewed the case as well as several documents that proved that J. Sheenan Donoghue denied Kimble personal employee reviews and never gave him a single bonus in 12 years, even though he had been part of the Division's management team for nearly 29 years. It was also shown that other employees with less experience who had been there a shorter time received bonuses while Kimble did not. Donoghue has maintained that the reason Kimble did not receive raises, bonuses or promotions was quite simply because she found that he did not perform his job well enough. This explanation did not hold water with the judge who determined Donoghue to be an uncredible witness whose personal feelings about an employee had clouded her opinions about  his performance. The judge also noted that Donoghue's claims of poor job performance were contradicted by other witness testimony and therefore could not be reliable. Instead, the judge found that Donoghue was, in fact, basing her bias on unfair and untrue stereotypes about African American workers and their ability to perform.  

Thanks to the judgement in his favor, Johnny Kimble can now be a beneficiary of the very system he helped support. Now retired, his pension is considerably less than it would have been had he recieved the raises and bonuses that he deserved. Yet he remains hopeful that through further litigation he will finally see compensation for the invaluable work he did for the state of Wisconsin.

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Workplace discrimination is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about. After all, the civil rights movement was a long time ago and we have an African American president. These matters surely cannot exist in today’s workplace. Or can they? Shockingly, the issues of workplace discrimination are still making headlines.

Take the case of Michelle London-Marble, the former Boeing employee from Mesa Arizona. London-Marable claims that she was discriminated by the company because of her race, wrongly denied disability benefits after an on the job injury, and forced to resign because she could no longer perform because of her injuries. After years of denials and dismissals, London-Marable is now hoping to take her discrimination case against Boeing all the way to the Supreme Court, as reported this past week.

Also last week, MALDEF, the country’s leading Latino legal organization has joined as co-council in the case of Moreno v. AARP. The case alleges that the AARP, the nation’s largest membership program for older Americans, discriminated against former employee Michael Moreno citing wrongful termination and retaliation. Moreno claims he was denied promotion opportunities based on his nationality and he claims that he was a victim of retaliation after he assisted other AARP employees in filing a sexual harassment suit.  And then he was fired. 

The story that really brought the topic of workplace discrimination to the forefront came out of the state of Virginia.  Governor Bob McDonnell shocked human rights groups as he removed homosexuals from workplace protection from the states discrimination policy. The newly elected governor reissued the state’s policy on discrimination with two groups newly and suspiciously absent: gays and lesbians. Although McDonnell promises to be fair to all groups of people, gay and lesbian rights groups are concerned. Eliminating any group of people from workplace protection is a dangerous prospect and rights groups from around the globe are watching Virginia and hoping that this decision is not a trend.