New York University will pay $210,000 and take steps to enhance its policies and procedures related to workplace discrimination claims to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency said in a news release.
The commission acted on behalf of an African-born former employee who worked in the mailroom of a university library and who, the agency said, suffered verbal harassment from a supervisor. According to the lawsuit, the supervisor regularly addressed the employee, a native of Ghana, with slurs like "monkey" and insults like "Go back to your cage," and made hostile remarks about immigrants, particularly those from Africa.
The suit alleged that NYU was slow to investigate the employee's complaints and subjected him to a hostile work environment in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
"Under this settlement, the victim will be compensated for the mistreatment he suffered, and NYU will be required to do much better by its employees in the future," said Gillian L. Thomas, a lawyer in the EEOC's New York District Office, said in the news release, issued on Tuesday.
In addition to paying the employee $210,000 for lost income and emotional distress, the university agreed to take a number of steps to improve its anti-discrimination policies and complaint procedures.
A spokesman for the university called the behavior described in the complaint an isolated incident and not in keeping with NYU's existing policy. "Such behavior is extremely rare here," said John Beckman, vice president for public affairs, "and totally at odds with spirit of diversity and tolerance for which NYU is rightly known."
