EEOC Reaches Consent Decree With Sega, Spherion

Charges of discrimination stemmed from the dismissal of 13 temporary Filipino game testers who contend their firing was due to their national origin.   At the same time, five other testers were fired in retaliation for their friendship with an employee who had threatened to file a complaint alleging preferential treatment of Filipino employees, the charges alleged, according to an EEOC news release.  

Under the consent decree, the 18 former employees will be paid $456,000 from Sega and $144,000 from Spherion , for a total of $600,000. Both Sega and Spherion , without admitting liability, have also agreed to conduct training to prevent future discrimination.

“This was a job in an industry I’m passionate about, so losing it was devastating. As a temp worker, you wonder what kind rights you have. I hope this outcome will encourage others to come forward to the EEOC and report discrimination,” Jeff Sideño , one of the game testers named in the case, said in the release.

Going one step further, Spherion has agreed to update its anti-discrimination policies according to the EEOC’s guidelines on contingent workers, and seek to recruit Filipino employees to its San Francisco Bay Area offices by placing advertisements in a local Filipino newspaper.

“We commend Sega and Spherion for working to resolve this matter,” EEOC District Director H. Joan Ehrlich said in the news release. “It’s significant that Spherion is incorporating the EEOC’s guidelines on contingent workers into their anti-discrimination policies I encourage all temp agencies to review these rules.”   The rules are available on the EEOC’s Web site at  http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/conting.html .