Miami hotel loses USD 2.5 mn discrimination lawsuit

A Miami based SLS South Beach hotel lost USD 2.5 million discrimination suit lawsuit, filed by seventeen Haitian people, who worked as dishwashers there.

The lawsuit was filed by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of the seventeen former employees of the hotel, reported the Fox News.

The suit was filed in April 2017; however, the incident was of April 2014.

As per a report, the dishwashers, who worked in the kitchens of a restaurant located inside the hotel, were barred from speaking Creole by the supervising chefs.

However, the Hispanic employees were allowed to speak Spanish.

The Haitian workers also claimed they were asked to carry heavy items up 13 flights of stairs, while no other employee was asked to do the same.

Following the incident, when the dishwashers requested the hotel managers to fix the elevator, one supervisor stated that "Let those slaves do the work", as per the report.

Later, on approaching the human resource department, the dishwashers were fired and immediately replaced with a new staff.

The Hotel, however, denied the allegations and chose to settle.

"We felt if we could resolve this amicably and help take care of these former employees, that was the right thing to do," said a legal representative of the hotel.