Black Steelworkers Can Proceed with Racial Bias Class Action

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has ruled that black employees of a Nucor Corp. steel plant can proceed as a class with their claims that their employer violated the Civil Rights Act with discrimination in job promotions, the Daily Labor Report's Lisa Nagele-Piazza reports.

The Fourth Circuit, 2-1, reversed a lower decision to decertify the class action in which the black steelworkers allege that they faced disparate treatment and disparate impact from discrimination in promotions. The lower court had found that the class did not meet the U.S. Supreme Court's heightened standard in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. v. Dukes for whether there are questions of law or fact common to the class.