Janitors win $452,500 settlement in race-bias suit

A cleaning company accused of firing a mostly African American cleaning crew and replacing it with cleaners of other ethnic groups agreed to pay $452,500 to the cleaners and their white supervisor to settle a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of the workers.

In the settlement approved in federal court in Philadelphia on Wednesday, the company, Matrix L.L.C., denied any discriminatory behavior.

According to the suit, Matrix hired the white supervisor, Barbara Palermi, in June 2007 to oversee a crew cleaning a client's facilities in Delaware County.

Shortly after she was hired, the suit said, Palermi was instructed not to hire any more African American cleaners nor to accept referrals from the crew of mostly black janitors.

After she refused to make hiring decisions based on race, she and the cleaners were fired in October 2007, the suit said.

Matrix also refused to allow the mostly African American crew to take breaks in the client's cafeteria, the suit said. The suit did not say if other groups of cleaners were allowed to use the cafeteria.

Palermi and the cleaners took their case to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Philadelphia, which filed the lawsuit Sept. 30. The settlement was approved by U.S. District Judge Anita Brody.

Fifteen people will divide the settlement.

Matrix, of Binghamton, N.Y., operates locally as Shellville Facility Services in King of Prussia.

In the decree, Shellville president Peter Criville and other company officials agreed to attend a class on preventing discrimination.

Human resource manager Brad Georgetti said Matrix did not violate any federal or state discrimination laws and would have prevailed had the case gone to trial. Settling it, he said, was strictly a business decision.