B&H Photo Settles Sex, Race Discrimination Suit For $3.2M

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By Daniel J. Solomon August 21, 2017

B&H Photo Video, the Jewish-owned Manhattan electronics retail giant, is settling a sex and race discrimination lawsuit filed by workers at its Brooklyn warehouse for $3.2 million.

“We are pleased that B&H entered into this agreement, and has committed to ensuring that their workers will receive equitable wages and opportunities, and enjoy a workplace that promotes equal employment opportunity,” labor mediator Jeffrey Rogoff said, according to the news website DNAInfo.

The suit, which was entered into by more than 1,300 workers, alleged that B&H only hired Hispanic men for entry-level jobs at the warehouse and cheated them out of wages.

Compensation will be distributed to those workers for back-pay and other damages. The company will also hire an independent monitor for its employment practice.

B&H says it settled merely to avoid costly courthouse expenses. “We settled to avoid the distraction of litigation,” a company spokesman told DNAInfo. “As a government contractor, we determined settlement was in our best interest”

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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