White Male Wins Employment Discrimination Case

NEWARK, N.J., Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Princeton attorney Hanan M. Isaacs has settled the nationally significant employment discrimination case of Michael C. Ryan, who alleged that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) repeatedly passed him over for promotion because he was white and male. The case pitted merit promotion principles against the FAA's unlawful affirmative action program. Mr. Ryan's employment discrimination case is part of a national trend of non-minorities in federal employment who were passed over for promotion because of their gender and skin color.

Mr. Ryan is a white male employee at the FAA's William J. Hughes Technical Center, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The FAA repeatedly denied Mr. Ryan's promotion bids, despite his respected 28-year career there. Between 1995 and 1997, Mr. Ryan was denied eight promotions for which he was well qualified. Seven of the eight individuals chosen for the disputed jobs were minorities or women.

At the trial, attorney Hanan Isaacs showed that the FAA used an unwritten but well publicized "50-50" policy, under which FAA managers were required to promote women and minorities at least 50% of the time.

"After 9 years of delay, this settlement gives Mike Ryan exactly what he asked for," said Mr. Isaacs. "The FAA has committed itself to an agency-wide policy change that will do away with unlawful affirmative action practices."

Under the agreement, Ryan will be promoted to a GS-15 managerial and supervisory position at the Hughes Technical Center. He gets a substantial upward salary adjustment and eight years of back pay plus interest, and substantial attorneys' fees and costs.

While not admitting liability for its former policies or in its treatment of Mike Ryan, the FAA has pledged to conduct a comprehensive review of all hiring and promotion programs, practices, and policies, and to report its progress to Mr. Ryan for two years. If at any point Mr. Ryan is dissatisfied, then he has the right to invoke a unique three-step, dispute resolution process, involving notification, discussion, formal mediation, and binding arbitration.

"This is the first time I have seen a private three-step, dispute resolution approach used in a federal sector civil rights case. It's a fantastic idea used all the time in the private sector," said Isaacs.