In 2006 A Brotha is Still Not Safe at the Job

March 22, 2006, 12:56AM

Conroe firm pays $1 million to settle race abuse case
By L.M. SIXEL
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

A black laborer for a pipe company in Conroe who contends white co-workers subjected him to racial epithets and choked him with a hangman's noose has received a $1 million settlement from his former employer.

"I find it very hard to believe that in 2006 we're finding incidents like this in the workplace," said Cari M. Dominguez, the chairwoman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission who was visiting Houston today on other business.

The settlement, which stems from a lawsuit filed by the EEOC in 2003, is the largest single award the agency has won for an individual in its history, Dominguez said.

Commercial Coating Services denies the allegations in the consent decree that was approved by U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison. A company representative referred all calls for comment to the company's lawyer who did not return telephone calls.

Charles Hickman worked at Commercial Coating Services for seven months in 2002. Hickman, the company's only black employee, said his white co-workers — including his supervisor — started making racial taunts almost as soon as he was hired, according to the EEOC suit.

Then one day one of his co-workers told him someone wanted to talk to him in the bathroom, the 37-year-old claimed in the suit. When Hickman he went in, two co-workers were waiting with a hangman's noose, which they put around his neck tightened, the suit alleged.

Hickman, who made $8 an hour, said a fight broke out and he lost consciousness. Once the noose was removed, he began coughing up blood.

"I'm still having problems," said Hickman. "I'm still on medication to make it through the days."

Hickman, who has five children between the ages of 13 and 18 and gets by on disability checks, said he doesn't expect to ever hold a full-time job again.

"I have trouble eating to this day," he said. "I can't swallow properly."

Hickman said he's not thinking much about the money.

"You really can't put a dollar amount on how I felt then and now," he said.

Rudy L. Sustaita, the EEOC lawyer who handled the case, said he was very pleased with how the case turned out.

"This is the worst case of discrimination I've ever seen," said Sustaita, who has been with the agency for 16 years.

Commercial Coating Services, which has changed owners since Hickman worked there and is now known as Commerical Coating Services International, initially tried to argue that the men were involved in "horseplay" and it wasn't racially motivated, said Charles H. Peckham, a private employment lawyer with Lundy & Davis who represents Hickman.

The piping company was also able to argue successfully to the Texas Workforce Commission that Hickman voluntarily quit his job and that he was therefore not eligible for unemployment benefits, said Peckham.

"They actually tried to make the argument that Charles actually thought it was funny," said Peckham.

That annoys Hickman who said he never considered the insults or physical abuse humorous.

"I was doing the job to support my family," he said. "I never took it as a joking matter."

In addition to the $1 million settlement and a permanent injunction, Commercial Coating's chief executive agreed to make a written apology to Hickman within 14 days.

And within 30 days, the company must either plant or designate a tree on its property in Conroe in honor of Hickman's tenure there.

Sustaita believes it's the first time the EEOC has participated in an settlement that includes the designation of a special planting of a tree.

The idea is that when someone is harmed badly, there should be a legacy, he said.

lm.sixel@chron.com