Temp agency settles discrimination lawsuit

Gary Moskowitz

NORTHEAST GLENDALE -- Valley Temps Inc. settled a lawsuit filed by the

United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $12,000, and

agreed to expunge the personnel file of the employee.

The temporary job placement agency hired L.A. resident Lydia Martinez

as an office assistant at its Glenoaks Boulevard location in March 1999.

Her employment was terminated three weeks later by a manager who was

unhappy with her Guatemalan accent, said Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission senior trial attorney Peter F. Laura.

“It was a violation of federal law,” Laura said.

Laura said Valley Temps Inc. agreed to ensure that national origin

discrimination does not occur in the future and provide training to the

manager who allegedly told Martinez on March 23, 1999, that she had to

improve her Guatemalan accent or be fired.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars employment

discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national

origin.