Alabama beverage distributor to pay $825,000 in race discrimination lawsuit

Birmingham Beverage Company, Inc., also known as AlaBev, a wholesale distributor of drinks and specialty foods, has to pay $825,000 and furnish other relief to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit.

Settlement of the lawsuit was announced by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency that enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetic information. The EEOC had originally filed the lawsuit in 2017.

The company was charged with failing to consider African American employees for promotions to vacant route sales positions. One example is Ronnie Johnson, a Black employee who applied for a route sales position.

“Despite six years of exemplary job performance with the company and previous route sales experience, Birmingham Beverage denied him an interview and instead promoted a white delivery driver with only nine months’ experience on the job, whom Johnson was supervising at the time,” a press release from the EEOC says.

Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2021/06/alabama-beverage-distributor-to-pay-825000-in-race-discrimination-lawsuit.html