The League of Iowa
Human & Civil Rights Agencies

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced that 93,277 workplace discrimination charges were filed with the federal agency nationwide during Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, the second highest level ever, and monetary relief obtained for victims totaled over $376 million. The comprehensive enforcement and litigation statistics for FY 2009, which ended Sept. 30, 2009, are posted on the agency’s web site at

Ron Brix’s longtime job as a computer systems developer for Wrigley, the gum and candy maker, required intense attention to detail, single-minded focus and a willingness to work on something repetitively until perfect. The secret he credits to his success? Autism. Brix, age 54, was diagnosed in 2001 with Asperger Syndrome, a form of autism often marked by the exact traits that help make him an ideal employee.

The nation’s unemployment rate inched down in November, a welcome sign that the economic crisis is waning and fewer people are losing their jobs, the government reported Friday. But the good news didn’t extend to older workers. The Labor Department said the jobless rate fell to 10 percent, down slightly from 10.2 percent in October. For workers age 55 and older, however, the unemployment rate rose to 7.1 percent in November from 7 percent one month earlier.

Large U.S. employers are continuing to shift health coverage costs to retirees or are getting out of the retiree benefits business altogether, according to a recent survey. Retirees who are not yet eligible for Medicare (those younger than 65) will be hardest hit next year as they attempt to balance fixed incomes with steady increases in health coverage costs, reports Towers Perrin’s 2010 “Retiree Health Care Cost Survey.”

For Richard Crane, the "new normal" in the labor market began when he was laid off from a New Jersey battery plant in the summer of 2006. Mr. Crane had been earning more than $100,000 a year operating heavy machinery at Delco, a former unit of General Motors. He worked there for 23 years, since graduating from high school. But when he lost his job he was thrust into a netherworld of part-time gigs: working the registers at Taco Bell, organizing orders at McDonald's, whatever he could find. "I...

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said FBL Financial Group Inc, an insurance and financial services company, deserves a new trial on an age bias claim by Jack Gross, a former claims administration director. Gross contended that the West Des Moines, Iowa-based company reassigned some of his duties in 2003, and that the demotion was in part because of his age, 54, at the time. A jury awarded him $46,945 for lost compensation.

Published: November 30, 2009

Johnny R. Williams, 30, would appear to be an unlikely person to have to fret about the impact of race on his job search, with companies like JPMorgan Chase and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago on his résumé. But after graduating from business school last year and not having much success garnering interviews, he decided to retool his résumé, scrubbing it of any details that might...

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A federal judge has ordered Connecticut officials to promote 14 firefighters who won a reverse discrimination case in a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton ruled Tuesday that the civil rights of white New Haven firefighters were violated when city officials threw out the results of a 2003 promotion exam when too f...