Inside's Coke's Diversity Story Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Inside's Coke's Diversity Story - Case Study Example Discrimination on the basis of color and gender is not new to the U.S. But laws and social feeling has contributed much to see that racial discrimination is non existent at least in the near future. This is a care where the Judiciary directed and supervised the erring company to make amends and diversify its policies to end discrimination. The law suit Ingram, et al. v. The Coca-Cola Company (Case No. 1-98-CV-3679 (RWS) was filed by the plaintiffs for "Four named plaintiffs, (Linda Ingram, Kimberly Gray Orton and Elvenyia Barton-Gibson.), represented a class of 2200 current and former salaried, African-American employees of Coca-Cola in this class action filed April 1999 in the Northern District of Georgia. The case involved race discrimination in promotions, compensation and evaluations. Among other things, the plaintiffs alleged a substantial difference in pay between African-American and white employees; a "glass ceiling" that kept African-Americans from advancing past entry-level management positions; "glass walls" that channeled African-Americans to management in areas like human resources and away from power centers such as marketing and finance; and senior management knowledge of these problems since 1995 and a failure to remedy them."1i The allegation was that there was... The court heard the matter which was taken up for settlement. "The plaintiffs claimed Coke discriminated against black salaried employees in pay, promotions and performance evaluations. The settlement covers black salaried employees in the United States who worked at Coke at any time between April 22, 1995, and June 14, 2000." The Plaintiffs counsel on their website further comment on the case as under: "In early 2000, the Court ordered both sides into mediation. The parties reached agreement on a Settlement-In-Principle on June 14, 2000. A final Settlement Agreement, valued at $192.5 million and designed to ensure dramatic reform of Coca-Cola's employment practices, was officially approved by the Court on June 7, 2001. Since the Settlement Agreement went into effect, the court-appointed task force chaired by Alexis Herman, former Secretary of Labor has issued annual task force reports highlighting the progress the Coca-Cola Company has made in complying with the Settlement Agreement."2 The views expressed on the issue by the news media and the website of major organizations of Human Rights welcomed the settlement move. For example the Interfaith Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) called it laudable and its post at the site on the day says: "On November 16th, The Coca-Cola Company agreed to pay more than $192 million in cash and equity payments in the largest racial discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history. The settlement resolved a federal class action lawsuit brought by African American employees against the company in April of 1999 and mandates major changes unprecedented in corporate history. Coke's Chairman Doug Daft has made it clear that he intends to root out discrimination at the company and restore the trust of the