Kelly Wright one of Fox former employees(Alex Wroblewski for The New York Times)
Fox News’ parent company 21st Century Fox has reached a $10 million settlement with 18 current and former employees who filed discrimination cases.
The television network is trying to put the drama behind them after dealing with several lawsuits since 2016. One of the cases happened to be a class action lawsuit of racial discrimination filed by the only Black male news anchor Kelly Wright along with 10 other plaintiffs. The lawsuit stated that the employees vocalized “abhorrent, intolerable, unlawful and hostile racial discrimination” to the network’s top honchos, but nothing was done about the offensive behavior, the New York Times reported.
A Fox news radio correspondent complained about gender discrimination and pregnancy discrimination against Fox 5 news in a separate claim.
The court documents obtained by the news source, details the following settlement terms: First, all employees must agree to drop their claims against the network. Secondly, employees involved in litigation should walk away from Fox News and never seek future employment with the network again.
Former news anchor Wright, had his contract bought out by Fox News. He told the network that he has a “desire to pursue new opportunities.”
“The parties have reached mutual agreements that resolve various cases involving former Fox News employees,” Fox News spokeswoman and Douglas H. Wigdor relayed in a joint statement.
“My view of 21st Century Fox and Fox News is that from top to bottom there is a systemic culture of not only discriminating against people based on their gender and color, but also of retaliating against them when they stand up to voice complaints,” Wigdor told the New York Times last fall.
There are still two other cases pending against Fox including Scottie Nell Hughes who alleged she was sexually assaulted by Fox Business Network host Charles Payne and private detective Rod Wheeler who claimed he was misquoted in a report that was later retracted.
A motion by the Wigdor Firm to withdraw from both suits was put into place on Monday stating an “irrevocable breakdown of the attorney-client relationship.”
