Honda to Pay 377 Women and Blacks for Hiring Bias

Honda of America acknowledged Wednesday that it will pay $6 million to 377 blacks and women who were denied jobs at the company’s three Ohio plants between 1983 and 1986.

Honda settled the discrimination charges after a sweeping federal investigation into hiring practices at U.S. subsidiaries of major Japanese auto makers.

Toyota also disclosed for the first time Wednesday that it agreed last year to increase its minority hiring after a federal investigation, and Nissan acknowledged that it is the subject of a continuing inquiry.

The $6 million in back pay and Honda’s agreement to hire the workers settled an investigation into its hiring and promotion practices begun in 1984 by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The settlement is one of the largest negotiated by the EEOC, and it has far-reaching implications for Japanese management practices in the United States.

“This agreement will determine the operating practices under which many tens of thousands of people will be working,” said Harley Shaiken, a professor at UC San Diego who specializes in the workplace. “The sensitivity of Japanese firms will be of increasing importance to Americans.”

Shaiken said Japanese managers, who have a dismal record for promoting women in their homeland, have had difficulty adjusting to U.S. laws on such matters. Some U.S. firms also have poor records, he said.

An estimated 160,000 Americans work for Japanese-owned companies in this country. The number is expected to grow dramatically as a result of the acquisition wave by the Japanese. The pending purchase of Firestone Tire & Rubber by Japan’s Bridgestone alone would add 55,000 Americans to the list.

Honda employs 5,900 people at its auto and motorcycle plants in Marysville, Ohio, where it is headquartered, and an engine plant in nearby Anna, Ohio, and has announced plans to hire 1,000 more in the next 18 months.

The EEOC investigation division in Washington opened its inquiry into Japanese auto makers in the fall of 1984, according to spokesmen for the companies. Jay Friedman, the division head, declined to comment.

Most negotiated agreements remain secret, but the EEOC issued a brief news release in the Honda case Wednesday as part of the settlement. The EEOC insisted on a similar disclosure in a $42-million discrimination case against General Motors Corp. in 1984.

Will Expand Recruitment

Along with hiring and financial provisions, the release said Honda agreed to expand recruitment to include black neighborhoods in Columbus, Ohio, promote additional blacks and women and explain anti-discrimination laws to its management.

Roger F. Lambert, chief spokesman for Honda of America, said Honda began hiring the blacks and women covered by the settlement in 1986 and all 377 were on the payroll by the end of last month.

Lambert said Honda’s minority employment rose from 1.6% in 1984 to 3.4% this month, and 25% of its employees are women. The minority figure is still below the auto industry average, and the figure for women is far above the average.

A spokesman at Toyota’s American sales headquarters in Torrance said the company reached an agreement with the EEOC in March, 1987, that required the company to alter its minority hiring policies. Five minorities were added to the 2,600 workers at the time, and there was no financial settlement or fine, said the spokesman, Jerry Giaquinta.

Settlement Expected

Ronald D. Cabibi, vice president for human resources at Nissan’s U.S. sales headquarters in Carson, said the company is the subject of an inquiry into hiring and promotion practices by the EEOC. He said he expects a negotiated settlement in the next two months.

“They have been investigating us and the investigation continues and we are in the process of trying to resolve the matter,” Cabibi said.

Nissan employs about 2,000 people in the United States, 1,000 at the Carson headquarters and an equal number around the country.