Hispanic Agents of U.S. Customs File Class
Action Against
Department of Treasury
Fri May 10, 4:38 PM ET
WASHINGTON, May 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Hispanic Special Agents of the U.S. Customs Service filed a class action in United States District Court for the District of Columbia today, alleging a pattern of discrimination based on their national origin dating back to the early 1970's. The action filed by David J. Shaffer and Ronald A. Schmidt of Shaffer, Rapaport & Schmidt follows unsuccessful efforts to have the EEOC act upon the full panoply of claims spanning twenty years and involving denials of promotion, lack of training, disproportionate assignments to dangerous undercover work, failure to compensate Hispanics for their Spanish language ability, disproportionate assignments to border stations and other unpopular assignments as well as disparities in hiring and transfers, systemic retaliation and harassment.
This constitutes the third major pending discrimination case against the Treasury Department. The Black Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) recently filed papers seeking to have Treasury Secretary O'Neill held in contempt of court for his failure to obey a decision finding similar discrimination at the BATF since 1983 and ordering systemic redress. The Black Special Agents of the Secret Service have a two-year old case making similar allegations also pending in U.S. District Court. Shaffer and Schmidt are counsel in all three cases and state that these cases demonstrate a pattern of severe discrimination at the Treasury Department going back at least 20 years. They allege that that Treasury has been on notice of these problems, but intentionally chose to ignore them.
Contacts: David J. Shaffer Office: 202-789-8188 Cell: 202-210-7424
Ronald A. Schmidt Office: 202-789-8188 Cell: 202-905-6217
Laurie Weinstein - U.S. Attorneys Office Counsel for Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms Office: 202-514-7133
Brian Sonfield - U.S. Attorneys Office Counsel for U.S. Secret Service Office: 202-514-7143
Bennett Courey - Office of Chief Counsel Marc Weinberger - Office of Chief Counsel U.S. Customs Service Office: 202-927-6900 Cell: 202-425-4200 (Courey) Cell: 301-452-2406 (Weinberger)