Analysis and discussion of issues that impact business

Let's hope these are isolated bad incidents, not systemic ones.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Monday that it has filed employment discrimination suits against the Atlanta Bread Co. restaurant chain, BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc. and auto parts retailer AutoZone Inc.

If you're a big company and you don't deal with issues like these, watch out.

Now, for anyone who's ever been accused of something, you know that there's almost no 'dis-incentive' for filing false accusations. I'll not speculate about these, but they'll still be important to watch.

In separate lawsuits filed Thursday in federal court here, the EEOC claimed that Natick, Mass.-based BJ’s and Sandy Springs, Ga.-based Atlanta Bread allowed racial discrimination of black and Hispanic employees. The complaint against Memphis, Tenn.-based AutoZone, filed Monday, accuses the company of permitting sexual harassment of several female workers.

I'm not sure what it means - if anything - but all of the incidents occurred at locations in Florida. Could it just be that the EEOC's Florida chapter is more proactive?

In each of the cases, the EEOC said it tried first to settle with the companies. The EEOC is asking a judge to prevent future acts of discrimination and order the companies to pay back wages and damages.

I'll be watching to see if there's a spike in the number of these cases, both in Florida and nationally.

I'd hate to think this is just a case of the proverbial "ambulance chasers".