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Nike Inc. will pay $7.6 million to settle a class-action lawsuit stemming from racial discrimination allegations filed by black employees from a Chicago Niketown location.
Tell me how this makes sense, a company who employs nothing but black athletes to sell their items to the youth, gets sued for being racist. How ironic. That’s like BlackBerry coming out and saying that business minded people are stupid, come on Nike, you deserve to pay up, so do it.
According to Reuters the lawsuit involves claims on behalf of approximately 400 former and current black employees of Nike Retail Services Inc.'s store. Court documents filed on July 30 with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois indicate the lawsuit was originally filed in December 2003.
Last March the court certified a class including all current and former black employees of Niketown Chicago from December 17, 1999 to the present, along with four subclasses.
Claims by employees of the store include that they were subjected to a hostile environment, given the worst jobs and denied equal opportunities.
Despite the settlement, Nike has denied all allegations of wrongdoing and liability.
In addition to the financial terms of the settlement, Nike has also agreed to take affirmative steps which include appointing a compliance officer at its headquarters and diversity training of supervisors at Niketown Chicago.
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