The MBTA risks losing close to $275 million in federal funding if discriminatory practices do not change.
According to Boston Herald reports, a letter, sent yesterday by Federal Transit and Highway administrations to Transportation Secretary Richard Davey and T Chief Beverly Scott, called for a “remedial action plan,” aimed at correcting the MBTA’s track record of workplace discrimination. The plan must be presented within 30 days.
If the MBTA fails to comply with Federal Equal opportunity laws, the T could lose $273 million in grants received this year.
Richard Weir, a reporter for the Boston Herald, wrote in June about a Federal probe regarding multiple complaints of discrimination at the MBTA. At the same time, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination was actively investigating 43 reports of discrimination involving T workers.
Over the course of the past three years, the MBTA has spent over $4 million on legal fees and settlements related to discrimination at the workplace.
In 2010, The Boston Globe reported that a group of Hispanic and female workers had filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination against their employer–the MBTA–claiming that Hispanic and women were “disproportionally represented” compared to white, male workers. The Boston Globe report also claimed that Hispanics were paid less.
Phillip Gordon, an attorney representing 13 T employers, told the Boston Globe in 2010 that the goal of the complaint filed against the MBTA was to change the system. Today’s Boston Herald report, which quoted Gordon, however, represents the MBTA’s failure to do so:
“It’s an environment that allows rampant discrimination to occur and flourish,” said Gordon.
MassDot, the MBTA’s parent agency acknowledged in the Herald that more needed to be done to ensure an equal workplace, despite recent progress.
“We are actively working and will continue to work together with federal partners to ensure all employees and are treated fairly and with respect.”
In June, shortly after reports surfaced regarding a Federal probe and widespread discrimination complaints from T workers, MassDot hired a lawyer, Joseph L. Edwards, as the interim director for the agency’s Office of Diversity and Civil Rights, according a Herald report.
Edwards works for Prince Lobel, the same firm that represents the MBTA in employee discrimination cases.
The same report acknowledged that Edwards, who is black, had also worked as a staff attorney for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination investigating discrimination complaints.
