Court Approves $1.6 Million Settlement Of Ford-UAW Apprenticeship Test Lawsuits BNA Report January 11, 2008 A federal district court in Ohio Dec. 20, 2007, approved a $1.6 million settlement of consolidated race discrimination suits by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and private plaintiffs challenging a written test given by Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers for entry into a skilled trade apprenticeship program. The current suit is a successor to the commission’s earlier litigation against Ford and UAW, which settled for $8.5 million in 2005, according to EEOC (6 class 436, 06/24/05). The current settlement covers all current and former Ford and Visteon Corp. hourly employees who took the Apprenticeship Training Selection System (ATSS) test during the relevant period for placement at an ACH facility but were not placed on an apprenticeship eligibility list and fell outside the scope of the 2005 settlement. In a joint motion for final approval of the settlement, the parties said Ford has stopped using the test at ACH facilities, that the company will use new selection procedures developed pursuant to the 2005 settlement, and that Ford has placed 60 class members on the ACH apprenticeship program eligibility list. The settlement provides $2,400 in monetary relief for each settlement class member who executes a release and does not opt out, according to the parties’ joint motion. Cyrus Mehri and Lisa Bornstein of Mehri & Skalet in Washington, D.C., and Nathaniel R. Jones and William M. Huse of blank Rome in Cincinnati represented the private plaintiffs. |
