BT Green, Inc. is a small high-tech business operating in Brine, Nevada.   The owner began it seven years ago with two associates in a rented office space just outside of town. In three years it doubled its revenue to $850K, and expanded its customer base in the local commercial market as well as in the adjacent state. This year, it submitted a bid on a federal government contact. In preparation for that contract, to demonstrate in its proposal that the company had sufficient capacity, BT Green hired three new employees. Last week, the company learned that it did not win; so, without the new revenue stream, it decided to let one of the new people go. The other two would be retained to find new business.

Kyle Reeder, who coordinates HR functions, began Monday morning with a voice mail from Terell Banks, the employee that was terminated on the preceding Friday. Mr. Banks said:

“I’ve thought about our conversation last week. I don’t think it was fair that I was fired. It seems pretty fishy to me that the only black man in the department was let go. I would like you to review the matter to see what else can be done.”

Kyle gathered the following information from the files. See below.

–Organizational chart

–Excerpts from BT Green’s Employee Handbook

–Signed Receipts of Policy Statements

–Lifecycle Status Reports

–Employee Records

–Diversity Report

–New-Hire Interview notes

–Exit Interview notes

what legal risk does the company have regarding Mr. Banks’ complaint? In doing this:

1. Identify the specific laws that may pertain to this situation.
2. State the key legal criteria for each law.
3. Analyze whether the details of the case meet the legal criteria, then explain how they do or do not fit.
4. State your conclusion about the legal risk.