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.