Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Walgreens

Christina Cole

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On Wednesday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a class action lawsuit against Walgreens Co. for allegedly discriminating against African-American management workers.

The suit was prompted in part from a Kansas City store manager that alleges the drugstore chain assigned black managers to low-performing stores and to stores only in African-American communities and has denied black workers promotion opportunities in violation of federal civil rights laws.

"Essentially, Walgreens has made store assignments based on race," said EEOC district director.

"What I saw was African-Americans being assigned to stores in African-American clientele locations, a decision I felt was solely based on race," Tucker said. "I also felt that African-Americans weren't promoted within the company as easily as others and that we were given the low-profit, high-shrink, the low-sales-volume stores, and that affected our compensation."

An EEOC attorney in Kansas City, has said 10,000 to 12,000 current and former Walgreens employees can become plaintiffs in this nationwide lawsuit.

The EEOC lawsuit seeks back pay, compensatory and punitive damages for the plaintiffs and asks the court to order Walgreens to discontinue the practice.

Race-based discrimination claims, historically the most frequent complaint filed with the agency, have increased markedly in the past 15 years and accounted for 36 percent of the EEOC's caseload in fiscal 2006