To continue reading please register or login to your OHW+ account.
• Lakeside Toyota has backed off its statement that a senior executive threatened to fire a director if he hired any more black employees. The company changed its position after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the US added five more names to a federal lawsuit alleging a white supervisor struck black salesmen with sticks and used racial slurs to address them. The suit now alleges all five black salesman, as well as original complainant Eddie Boyd, were forced to leave after complaining about abuse by a white used car manager. The person to whom they complained, used car director David Oseng, reported the matter but was told he needed "an attitude change" and was eventually fired, the EEOC says. In an earlier court filing, Lakeside Toyota admitted a senior manager told Oseng not to hire any more black people or he would be fired. In the new filing, the company says Oseng was told not to hire any more "unqualified" black people.
Large organisations top diversity league in US
• Thirty-eight per cent of US employers have a formal diversity programme, according to a survey by William Mercer. Large organisations (5,000-plus staff are almost three times as likely as mid-sized organisations (fewer than 5,000 staff) to have diversity programmes. Two-thirds of the large employers have formal programmes, compared to only 24 per cent of mid-sized organisations. Such programmes are more common among services companies (41 per cent) than manufacturers (28 per cent).
www.wmmercer.com/usa/english/service/a&r/index.html
EU to widen competition in postal services
• The European Commission has drawn up controversial plans for opening up the E80bn ($75.5bn) EU mail market to further competition. It is expected to adopt the proposals on 24 May to liberalise 27 per cent of existing postal monopoly services by 2003. The proposals are highly sensitive as many national postal services and governments, including France, are strongly opposed to more liberalisation. The debate about postal competition has become highly politicised with warnings of the threat to rural post offices. Ft.com
