What Is The Demographic Makeup Of Septa Employees

Conductor Richard Murray stands in front of 1 of a SEPTA train. | Matt Rourke / AP

PHILADELPHIA—Minorities make up 64 per centum of the workforce at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTS) but fill only 32 percent of management slots.

SEPTA is the transportation authority that provides services to Philadelphia and Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware Counties in the southeastern portion of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It also provides motorcoach and track service to Trenton, Northward.J. It is essential for residents and visitors in the Philadelphia metropolitan expanse.

Nevertheless, racial disparity is not the only problem SEPTA employees accept. Many have complained of firing for small and mundane reasons, acts that were about never punished if committed by white workers. Many employees stated that they were not but fired just suffered retaliation. Some were fired for reasons that were not terminable actions. Others were fired for medical reasons.

One Latino employee said he called his supervisor because he became ill on the job and "feared for the safety of his passengers." It took SEPTA two hours to respond to the phone call. When they did, the employee had to ask the supervisor for paperwork to fill out so he could be released from the job to become to the hospital. He was released and later, after his surgery, he chosen SEPTA to ask when he was to report back to work. They told him he had been "discarded."

This was not the worst complaint. At previous SEPTA employee meetings, complaints of sexual harassment were brought forward. One adult female felt that many supervisors expected sexual favors from their female employees. In one case, a homo was solicited for sex by a male person supervisor. The workplace appeared to be highly "toxic" according to Minister Rodney Muhammad, president of the Philadelphia NAACP.

On April xviii, a meeting of SEPTA employees was held to discuss discrimination charges against SEPTA, the evidence confronting the company, and the possibility of a form action adjust. Employees were asked to sign in and place side by side to their names the date of their termination if whatsoever. The coming together took identify at the Nicetown Community Development Corp. (CDC) in Philadelphia.

Minister Muhammad promised to ensure that minority workers' complaints of racial discrimination and sexual harassment volition non go unrecognized. He promises justice for SEPTA workers. Co-ordinate to numbers collected then far, over 87% of the complainants were African-American.

At the request of the U.Due south. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Philadelphia NAACP held an informal meeting with the employees who lodged complaints. It was a fact-finding tour and a lecture to inform SEPTA employees how to file an EEOC complaint. During the meeting, it became apparent that many had already done so. Some had right-to-sue letters. Most were unemployed and could not afford the $450 information technology costs to file the employment discrimination suit in federal court.

Jamie Williamson, EEOC district manager, explained the procedure and offered a short autobiography. She was built-in in Pittsfield, a small city in Western Massachusetts, where she broke the mold by becoming one of the area's first African Americans elected to an at-large council position.

Williamson understood the complaints of the people who sat earlier her. She listened and offered tips on ways to combat racial bigotry. She understood the stressful environs that racial discrimination causes. For example, one of the erstwhile employees complained that SEPTA doesn't accept enough people to work the bus lines. Some lines didn't have enough autobus operators because of the discriminatory firings.

She took time to explain "implicit bias"—a phenomenon that results from the tendency to process information based on unconscious associations and feelings, even when these are contrary to 1's conscious or declared behavior. She stated that most prejudice stems from this feeling about people whom they interact with. They feel these people are either "less than" because they cannot be the person they should be, or they are "like" people who they know are inferior. Information technology makes discrimination, especially racial discrimination, somewhat subtle.

This type of discrimination has been going on for a long time. In fact, it has become institutionalized. The EEOC was formed in 1965, 1 yr after the passage of the Ceremonious Rights Act of 1964. President Lyndon Johnson created the Office of Equal Opportunity and the EEOC and appointed its first chair. EEOC under Title VII prohibits bigotry on the basis of race, organized religion, sex, or national origin. The EEOC as well has the responsibility for enforcing the Historic period Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Human activity, the Equal Pay Act, and the Genetic Non-Discrimination Data Human activity.

Williamson stated the group needed a certain amount of evidence to bring a class activeness lawsuit. Although difficult, it would not exist impossible. She needed evidence equally only the strongest cases will be brought frontwards because of the EEOC'due south limited funding and staff. Williamson said she merely has xix people to handle 5,000 complaints a year.

A question was raised: Someone asked if at that place is any legislation that will allow attorneys to take cases and get a portion of the award or relief equally they do in Social Security disability cases and Veterans Compensation cases.

Williamson responded that the answer to that question lies in funding: "Both the Social Security Assistants and the Veterans Administration are better funded. Besides, who is going to mess with veterans and retirees? African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and other minorities, on the other hand, that'southward a different story."

---

Contributor

Source: https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/toxic-work-environment-in-pennsylvania-transit/

Posted by: presleralles1971.blogspot.com

Share this post