A cleaning company that operates in Maryland and several other surrounding states was recently hit with a racial discrimination suit by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. According to the lawsuit, 15 former employees of Matrix LLC were discriminated against because they were black.

The company has agreed to a three-year consent decree, avoiding litigation. Civil litigation at this level -- with a federal agency filing suit -- would likely cause Matrix to experience severe consequences if the company was found complicit of the alleged racial discrimination.

The settlement will ensure the training of Matrix managers and supervisors on the topics of retaliation and discrimination. A remedial notice will be posted at the facility and any reports of discrimination there will have to be passed on to the EEOC.

According to the EEOC, a white supervisor was told not to hire any more black people as cleaners. Ignoring this request, the supervisor hired individuals based on their qualifications alone, some of whom were black. The company allegedly terminated the female supervisor after discovering that more black employees were hired. The EEOC believes this was an act of retaliation because she did not support racial discrimination in her workplace.

More allegations suggest that black employees at a specific facility were told to sit in the back of the cafeteria. Later, they were supposedly told they could not use the cafeteria in any facet while on break. Every employee at this facility was eventually terminated by Matrix, which hired more individuals to replace the openings created. None of the replacements were black.

If these allegations are true, they are violating an important portion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Source: Human Resources Journal, "Company to Pay Nearly a Million Dollars in Discrimination Settlement," Jan. 10, 2012