Never thought we’d have to say this in 2010: Companies can’t discriminate against workers — even if customers ask them to.
That’s the message in a recent federal appeals court ruling in Indiana.
The case centers around Brenda Chaney, a black nursing assistant at a nursing home. One resident of the facility said she “did not want assistance from black certified nursing assistants,” according to court records, and hospital officials noted on each day’s assignment sheets, “Prefers No Black CNAs.”
Racially-tinged comments, too
The nursing home’s “practice of honoring the racial preferences of patients was accompanied by racially-tinged comments and epithets from co-workers,” the judge wrote, including one incident when a fellow employee asked “(Why do we) keep on hiring all of these black niggers?” in front of Chaney. Chaney’s supervisors put a stop to the racial epithets, but continued to remind her about patients’ racial preferences.
Chaney was eventually fired for allegedly using an offensive word in front of a patient.
She sued for discrimination. The employer claimed it had properly dealt with Chaney’s complaint of racial epithets. Reminding her of patient preferences was simply a customer service measure, facility officials said.
No way, said the judge. The bottom line: The principle source of the racial hostility in the workplace was the employer’s willingness to accede to a patient’s racial preferences.
“The hostility that Chaney described came from daily reminders that (she was employed) on materially different terms than her white co-workers. Fueling this pattern was the racial preference policy … It was, in short, a racially hostile environment,” the judge wrote.
There are limits
The lesson here seems to be this: There are limits to what’s justifiable under the rationale of providing customer service. If a customer’s preferences fall outside the law, they simply can’t be followed.
In this case, denying the patient’s demands might have meant the client might have moved to another nursing facility. And although that would have been unfortunate, it certainly wouldn’t have been as unfortunate as losing a discrimination lawsuit in federal court.
Cite: Chaney v. Plainfield Healthcare Center
