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Discrimination Settlement Nears at Ford
The lawsuits in question involve the company’s performance evaluation system, which allegedly favored younger, so-called diversity candidates (see Statistics Show Older Ford Managers Get Bad Grades ). Last July, Ford said it would discontinue the 18-month-old Performance Management Process, which assigned managers grades of A, B or C and handed out bonuses/raises accordingly (see Ford Shifts Gears On Employee Grading System ).
The program began with a “forced” distribution that called for at least 10% of employees to be rated a “C” a ranking that impacted raises and bonuses. Those rated “C” for two years running ran the risk of losing their jobs. The 10% distribution was later softened to 5%.
Plaintiffs said that before the grading program was implemented, they had received positive evaluations. However, once the new program was in place, they say they got C grades, while some women and minorities with less experience or inferior work records were given higher grades.
MORE on forced performance evaluation systems at Total Benefits: Making the Grade