Justices split on awarding overtime, salary increases for backpay in racial discrimination suit

Trial Notebook

By Steven P. Garmisa

Hoey & Farina

Posted July 28, 2022 12:13 PM

Eleven years after the Illinois Department of Transportation fired John E. Stewart Jr. and he accused the agency of racial discrimination, the Illinois Human Rights Commission ordered IDOT to reinstate him as an emergency traffic patrolman based in Bridgeport and provide $269,180 in backpay — calculated without any of the salary increases and overtime that southside ETPs received from 2007 to 2018.The unanimous part of the Illinois Appellate Court’s decision was that the commission abused its discretion by basing the …

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