Class Certified in Black Workers’ Staffing Agency Bias Suit (1)

Black workers who allege racial bias caused MVP Staffing and client Gold Standard Baking Inc. to largely exclude them from temporary assignments at the bakery’s Chicago-based production facility can pursue the case as a class action, the Northern District of Illinois ruled.

The Cicero, Ill., office of Personnel Staffing Group LLC, which does business as MVP, acted on Gold Standard’s discriminatory preference when it referred disproportionately few black applicants to temporary assignments at the facility, lead plaintiffs James Zollicoffer and Norman Green allege in the 2013 suit. Gold Standard preferred Hispanics, they say.

The ruling appears to be the first ...