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Brothers’ religious discrimination suit settled

March 18, 2010

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A nationwide staffing company settled a lawsuit filed on behalf of two Jewish employees who were subjected to religious discrimination.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had sued Texas-based Administaff, Inc., which provides human resource teams for small- to medium-sized companies, and Conn-X, a Florida-based cable service provider, after brothers Scott and Joey Jacobson were harassed for approximately two years at the Conn-X office in Edgewood, Md.

Administaff will pay the brothers $115,000 for religious discrimination, and will abstain from engaging in harassment on a religious bias and from retaliating against employees who report such harassment. Administaff also agreed to revise its policy against harassment and retaliation, and provide training for its managers on anti-discrimination laws.

The Jacobsons were called “dirty Jew” and “dumb Jew,” and were subjected to other anti-Semitic comments beginning in 2005. Scott Jacobson had his work vehicle defaced with a swastika and was forced into a trash bin for the amusement of managers watching on work surveillance cameras, calling it “throw the Jew in the Dumpster.”

Attempts to reach a voluntary settlement fell through, leading to the EEOC lawsuit. The suit against Conn-X remains unresolved.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits religious harassment.

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