This article talks about Coca-Cola's past experiences with minorities and women fairness issues. Until recently Coca-Cola's has been discriminatory towards its minority and woman employees with regard to promotions, pay raises and job evaluations. There have been numerous civil action law suits filed against Coke by its employees. Two years ago Coke was forced to pay $188 million in settlements to its minority employees involved in a lawsuit accusing the company with discrimination and unequal treatment. These law suits forced courts to appoint an independent diversity task force to monitor Coca-Cola's human resource practices. The task force is an independent panel made up of civil rights officials, lawyers and corporate executives. The diversity task force is set up to over look company's hiring, promotion and talent development related to women and minorities. According to panel's reports, Coke has improved dramatically this year, the company also set up several new practices that were not required by the settlements. Coke is trying to improve its human resource practices and make up for previous years where they have been less then perfect with regard to minorities and women. .
As discussed in class, equal opportunity law is a big issue in human resource practices and it's often violated in our corporate world. Even though most companies including Coke are claiming to be very minority-friendly and being an equal opportunity employer, it's often not the case. I personally think that an independent diversity task force is a very good idea in order to keep these big companies in place. I also think that companies that have a large pool of employees should all be monitored randomly by these independent panels. Just like financial statements are audited by independent CPA firms, human resource practices should be monitored also. Strict control is the only way to have an equal opportunity environment.
