No excuse for second-class treatment

Enough is enough.

The pattern of events Michelle Savoy describes in her Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against BMW of North America is no less egregious than the development and cover-up of the emissions-test cheating device at Volkswagen.

If the allegations detailed in Automotive News' report are true, they reflect a corporate culture that should embarrass the leaders of BMW and serve as a wake-up call to the entire auto industry.

The industry has long relied on temporary workers such as Savoy in the name of labor flexibility. And by the nature of their contracts, these workers are bound to have a nebulous, if not second-class, status within the corporate hierarchy. Some may be auditioning for permanent positions. Others may be specifically barred from jumping from a staffing company directly to its client.

Ten years is a long time to be a temp. If Savoy wasn't on track for a permanent position, her bosses should have made that clear to her.

But no labor arrangement warrants the type of second-class treatment Savoy alleges: racist and sexist comments, retaliatory job reassignments, a callous human resources department.

Why, a skeptic (or that callous human resources department) might ask, would a worker who was being treated so badly stick with a job for so long?

That's her business. No worker in this industry or any industry should have to leave a job in order to avoid discriminatory or dehumanizing treatment.

In the best of worlds, workers do their jobs well and are treated with respect. Otherwise, the reporting and disciplinary mechanisms of human resources must work to root out bad behavior and bad actors, well before a federal agency gets involved.

BMW and the staffing agency Pinnacle are investigating what went wrong in Savoy's case. Other companies would do well to scrutinize their own processes, so the industry can continue to attract and retain the best workers.