A Door Opens for Workers

[groovedaddy]

Workers won an important victory at the Supreme Court on Monday when the justices ruled unanimously that a group of African-American applicants to the Chicago Fire Department did not wait too long to challenge a hiring test they claimed was discriminatory.

If interpreted properly by the lower courts, the ruling could give a chance at relief to minority groups, women, the elderly the disabled and others claiming to be victims of a discriminatory employment practice long after the practice went into effect.

The court ruled that the black firefighters could sue the city of Chicago over the scoring system on a test that they claimed had overwhelmingly favored white applicants. The issue was not the test itself, which a lower court had already ruled discriminatory against blacks, but the time lapse in bringing the suit. Under Title VII of the civil rights law, plaintiffs are supposed to file no later than 300 days after an unfair practice occurs; the question here is whether the practice occurred only when the scoring system began or every time the test was given.

Determining when a time limit begins became a serious issue after the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 against Lilly Ledbetter, who had been paid less than men for years by her employer, Goodyear Tire and Rubber, saying she should have filed her complaint shortly after her pay was set, even if she did not know then about the disparity. Fortunately, Congress overturned that decision last year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/opinion/25tue3.html?th&emc=th