Labor Department, Whirlpool settle discrimination claims

Wednesday, August 10th 2005, 3:08 pm

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U-S Labor Department announced today that Whirlpool has agreed to pay 850-thousand dollars to settle claims of hiring discrimination involving 800 black job applicants at a Tulsa manufacturing plant.

The consent decree settles the department's allegations that the company engaged in hiring discrimination from March 1997 to February 1998. The company admitted no wrongdoing.

In addition to the payment, the department says Whirlpool will hire 48 of the rejected applicants. The jobseekers were applying for entry-level assembler positions at the Tulsa plant.