Food service provider defends practices against allegations of discrimination

The company that provides food services at Pitt has settled a discrimination lawsuit with… The company that provides food services at Pitt has settled a discrimination lawsuit with thousands of black employees for $80 million, but none of the allegations of discrimination involved the company’s local employees.

Sodexho Inc., which has been Pitt’s food provider since 1997, will pay thousands of managers who fall under the class action suits as much as $60,000 each, while the 10 named plaintiffs in the suit could each receive up to an additional $120,000.

In settling the lawsuit, the Maryland-based company defended its reputation.

“We do not move managers based on race,” spokeswoman Leslie Aun said in May, in response to the allegations, that Sodexho transferred managers to different locations in an attempt to avoid promotions.

Pitt Director of Affirmative Action William Savage said in May that no past discriminatory disputes have come to his office. When asked, he could not offer any data on the percentage of black managers working for Sodexho at Pitt.

The class action suit, originally filed in 2001, applied to thousands of black managers who argued they were continually overlooked and denied promotions despite being qualified.

Aun said the company was on par with the national average when it comes to minority employment.

“Twelve percent of the managers in our company are black, and the African-American population in America is roughly 12 percent for the census,” Aun said. “Sodexho exceeds the labor pool for African-American managers.”

About 25 percent of the company’s entire workforce is black. Sodexho employs 15,532 managers, of which 1,921 are black, but only 2 percent of the upper management is black..

In the settlement, Sodexho agreed to more training and a more structured hiring process for its 106,000 employees throughout the country.

Aun refused to comment on possible discrimination at Pitt.

“You really have to look at the whole company nationwide for a fair and accurate picture,” Aun said.