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LabCorp Worker Alleges Discrimination In Federal Lawsuit

Credit: Flickr user Brian Turner for Creative Commons http://bit.ly/2lS68NZ

An employee at a North Carolina-based health diagnostics company has filed a discrimination lawsuit in federal court.

Dwayne Muhammed has worked as a technologist at the Laboratory Corporation of America, or LabCorp, since 2007.

He says in a lawsuit that the company discriminated against him because of his race and passed him over for a raise because he complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

According to The Times-News of Burlington, Muhammad says he received a written reprimand for insubordination after a supervisor said he refused to make new controls for a test when he'd done so. Muhammad said the same supervisor told him his job was not to be logical or analyze, but "to obey."

After filing his complaint, Muhammad said he was passed over for a $1,000-per-year raise. Muhammad is black. The supervisors identified in the lawsuit are white.

A LabCorp spokeswoman said Friday the company doesn't comment on pending litigation.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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