SAMPLE EEO CASES RACIAL DISCRIMINATION: CASE 1: To be hired for one of the higher paying jobs at an electric utility, new employees were required to have a high school diploma and to achieve satisfactory scores on two professionally prepared aptitude tests. Several black applicants were rejected because they had neither. They filed charges of racial discrimination. YOU BE THE JUDGE, WAS THERE ILLEGAL DISCRIMINATION? ANSWER: (Griggs vs. Duke Power, 1971; Civil Rights Act of 1991) CASE 2: An airline refused to hire a black applicant into its pilot training program because he did not have a college degree and did not meet the minimum flight time requirement that the airline established for its pilot trainees. The airline was charged with racial discrimination. WAS THIS A LEGITIMATE CLAIM OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION? ANSWER: (Spurlock vs. United Airlines, 1972) SEX DISCRIMINATION: CASE 3: An airline refused to hire men as flight attendants. When challenged in court by a male applicant, the airline pointed to Section 703 of Title VII and claimed that sex was a BFOQ for the position of flight attendant. As evidence, the airline offered the following: 1. Passenger Preference: surveys showed that passengers preferred women to men as cabin attendants. 2. Psychological Needs: A clinical psychologist testified that women, simply because they were women, could provide comfort and reassurance to passengers better than men could. 3. Feasibility: An industrial psychologist testified that sex was the best practicable screening device to use in determining whom to hire for the position. IS SEX A BFOQ FOR THE POSITION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANT? ANSWER: (Diaz vs. Pan American Airlines, 1970) CASE 4: The manager was confronted with a large room packed with applicants for only a handful of openings. To screen out some of the people, he announced that all the women with pre-school age children should go home. One of those sent home filed a charge of sex discrimination. The company responded by saying that it did not discriminate against women. In fact, many women worked at the facility in question. It was only women with young children that the company preferred not to hire, because child care responsibilities often interfered with work responsibilities. Therefore, the company said it did not violate Title VII by discriminating because of child care obligations and not because of sex, per se. IS THIS SEX DISCRIMINATION? ANSWER: (Phillips v. Martin Marietta, 1970, et al.) CASE 5: The bank teller said that she had complied with her supervisor's sexual demands because she was afraid of losing her job. She had had intercourse with him forty or fifty times over the years. On various occasions he had fondled her in front of other employees, followed her into the women's restroom, exposed himself, and forcibly.

1. SAMPLE EEO CASES
RACIAL DISCRIMINATION:
CASE 1: To be hired for one of the higher paying jobs at an
electric utility, new employees were required to have a high
school diploma and to achieve satisfactory scores on two
professionally prepared aptitude tests. Several black applicants
were rejected because they had neither. They filed charges of
racial discrimination.
YOU BE THE JUDGE, WAS THERE ILLEGAL
DISCRIMINATION?
ANSWER: (Griggs vs. Duke Power, 1971; Civil Rights Act
of 1991)
CASE 2: An airline refused to hire a black applicant into its
pilot training program because he did not have a college degree
and did not meet the minimum flight time requirement that the
airline established for its pilot trainees. The airline was
charged with racial discrimination.
WAS THIS A LEGITIMATE CLAIM OF RACIAL
DISCRIMINATION?
ANSWER: (Spurlock vs. United Airlines, 1972)
SEX DISCRIMINATION:

2. CASE 3: An airline refused to hire men as flight
attendants. When challenged in court by a male applicant, the
airline pointed to Section 703 of Title VII and claimed that sex
was a BFOQ for the position of flight attendant. As evidence,
the airline offered the following:
1. Passenger Preference: surveys showed that
passengers preferred women to men as cabin
attendants.
2. Psychological Needs: A clinical psychologist
testified that women, simply because they were
women, could provide comfort and reassurance to
passengers better than men could.
3. Feasibility: An industrial psychologist testified
that sex was the best practicable screening
device to use in determining whom to hire for the
position.
IS SEX A BFOQ FOR THE POSITION OF FLIGHT
ATTENDANT?
ANSWER: (Diaz vs. Pan American Airlines, 1970)
CASE 4: The manager was confronted with a large room
packed with applicants for only a handful of openings. To
screen out some of the people, he announced that all the women
with pre-school age children should go home. One of those sent
home filed a charge of sex discrimination. The company
responded by saying that it did not discriminate against women.
In fact, many women worked at the facility in question. It was
only women with young children that the company preferred not
to hire, because child care responsibilities often interfered with
work responsibilities. Therefore, the company said it did not
violate Title VII by discriminating because of child care
obligations and not because of sex, per se.

3. IS THIS SEX DISCRIMINATION?
ANSWER: (Phillips v. Martin Marietta, 1970, et al.)
CASE 5: The bank teller said that she had complied with
her supervisor's sexual demands because she was afraid of
losing her job. She had had intercourse with him forty or fifty
times over the years. On various occasions he had fondled her
in front of other employees, followed her into the women's
restroom, exposed himself, and forcibly raped her. The bank's
management responded that it had know way of knowing that
any harassment was going on. The teller had been progressing
through the ranks based on merit, and she had never disclosed
that she was being harassed, even to her co-workers or friends.
IS THIS SEXUAL HARASSMENT?
ANSWER: (Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 1986)
NATIONAL ORIGIN DESCRIMINATION
CASE 6: Manual Fragante applied for job as a clerk with
the City and County of Honolulu. He scored the highest of 721
applicants on a civil service eligiblity test but was not hired
because the employer believed that he was deficient in his oral
communication skills since he had a “heavy Filipino accent”.
SHOULD HE BE HIRED?
ANSWER: (Fragante v. City and County of Honolulu, 1989)

4. RELIGIOUS
DISCRIMINATION
CASE 7: An airline's shift assignments were based on
seniority, and one employee assigned to Saturday shifts did not
have enough seniority to change his shift. The employee
became a member of the Worldwide Church of God, which
forbids its members to work on Saturdays. At the employee's
request, the airline agreed to look for someone to trade shifts
with the employee voluntarily, but no one stepped forward. The
union refused to make the trade forcibly for that would have
violated the collective bargaining agreement. The company
refused to allow the employee to work only four days a week,
because his job was essential to operations. Finally, the
employee failed to report to work on Saturday, and, after
repeated warnings, he was fired. He filed charges of religious
discrimination against the company claiming that the airline
could have filled his position with a supervisor or give another
employee overtime pay to do it.
WAS THE AIRLINE JUSTIFIED IN DISMISSING THE
EMPLOYEE?
ANSWER: (TWA vs. Hardison, 1977)
AGE DISCRIMINATION
(Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 1967, 1978,
1986)

5. CASE 8: A bus company refused to hire intercity drivers
over forty years of age, and an applicant who was turned down
charged the company with age discrimination. In its defense,
the company argued that, for most people, physical changes that
begin around age 35 have an adverse effect on driving skills.
Because the company could not practicably determine when
such changes take place in an individual applicant, it used
chronological age as an indicator. Also the company presented
evidence that experience tended to offset the adverse effects of
age. Its safest drivers had a particular blend of age and driving
experience with the age being between 50 and 55 with
experience of about 20 years. Any driver hired past age 40
would not be able to reach this optimal blend.
SHOULD THE BUS COMPANY HAVE HIRED THE DRIVER
WHO WAS OVER 40?
ANSWER: (Hodgson vs. Greyhound Lines, Inc., 1974)
HANDICAP DISCRIMINATION
(Vocational Rehabilitation Act,
1973
& Americans with Disabilities
Act, 1990)
CASE 9: A woman with a serious hearing impairment was

6. denied admission to a training program to become a registered
nurse. The reason behind the rejection was that, even with lip
reading, she would have had difficulty performing certain duties
such as working with staff wearing surgical masks. She filed
charges of discrimination against the handicapped.
SHOULD SHE HAVE BEEN ADMITTED TO THE TRAINING
PROGRAM?
ANSWER: (Coleman v. Darden, 1979; et al)
CASE 10: An elementary school teacher suffered three
relapses of tuberculosis, a disease she had contracted at the age
of fourteen. The school board, fearing contagion, dismissed her
from teaching. She filed charges of discrimination against the
handicapped.
IS THIS DISMISSAL JUSTIFIED?
ANSWER: (Arline v. School Board of Nassau County, 1987)