Fired insurance agents allege discrimination
OAKLAND — Seven former Bay Area insurance agents for the California State Automobile Association — some with more than 30 years on the job — have filed formal complaints against the company, saying they were wrongfully fired and discriminated against because they are all bilingual and serve a predominantly minority clientele.
As a prelude to a lawsuit, the complaints were filed Monday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, attorney Debra DeCarli said.
“The firing of these agents has had a huge impact on the customers they serve, who now don’t have a person they’ve developed a relationship with who speaks their language,” DeCarli said Tuesday at a news conference in the Oakland offices of Gwilliam, Ivary, Chiosso, Cavalli & Brewer.”If all of us spoke only English and not a second language, we would still have our jobs,” said longtime agent Barney Fong, 41, of Castro Valley. “That put us on the radar. Apparently they want us to force clients to speak English.”
In a statement issued Tues-day, CSAA spokeswoman Jenny Mack said the company was taking the complaint seriously but didn’t address specifics.
“We take these allegations seriously and we believe our record of honoring the diversity of our employees speaks for itself,” the statement reads. “CSAA is proud of our commitment to serving the needs of our diverse membership and we are committed to making our services accessible and convenient for all of our members.” All seven agents — who say they were some of the company’s top producers — were fired on the same day, Dec. 3. The reason given for termination was “misrepresentation,” the agents said.
“CSAA was saying we lowered mileage figures on two or three policies out of our thousands of clients without the insured per- son authorizing the change,” said Grady Miles, 62, of Oakland.
“But a reduction in mileage creates a reduction in premium, which also lowers our commission structure,” Miles said. “Why would we do that to ourselves? To say we did this arbitrarily to help out a particular client was false.”
Instead, the former agents believe there was another motive.
“CSAA encourages their sales representatives to solicit insurance and memberships in languages other than English, particularly Spanish and Chinese,” said Connie Chan, 35, of Alameda. “But when it comes to servicing existing policy holders … CSAA requires all sales representatives to refer 80 percent of their transactions to an 800 call-center number staffed by unlicensed insurance service associates who primarily speak English.
“I believe I was singled out because I am Chinese-American and because of who my customers are,” Chan said.
The CSAA statement from Mack on Tuesday states that the company has been a trusted provider of auto insurance for more than 90 years.
“We are confident our business practices meet the highest industry standards and serve the best interest of our members.”