TBD | Makere v Allstate

TRANSCRIPT

00:00 = Intro

Allstate Insurance Company discriminates on the basis of race, sex, and color. Plus, it retaliates against the employees who complain about it. I know this for a fact, because Allstate did it to me.

So, what I’m going to recount to you here are the facts surrounding Allstate’s discrimination against me. Although there’s much more I can say (about what Allstate did to me), I’m going to stick to the indisputable facts. Facts which are independently verifiable. Facts which come from sources whose accuracy cannot be assailed.

To put it briefly: Allstate only fired the black guy who failed an actuarial exam. It kept everyone else who also failed, and even replaced him with people who had drastically less exam prowess. Prior to terminating him, the company subjected him to disparate treatment and harassment for years.

Okay, so, here’s how it unfolded...

01:23 = Hiring

1. On November 18, 2013, I began working for Allstate. The company admitted me into its Actuarial Career Program (“ACP”). The ACP’s goal was to develop its members into FSAs (Fellows of the Society of Actuaries).

01:49 = Qualifications

2. At the time of hiring, I had already passed six (6) actuarial exams, and had a little over one year of experience. This meant that I would have to pass four (4) more exams to get the desired credential.

02:06 = ASA Status (First Credential)

3. Within the first two months of my employment, I passed three minor tests and one exam. This meant that I qualified for the first actuarial credential; called the ASA. In Spring 2014, I traveled to Atlanta, GA to complete the ceremony.

a. As a side note, if you read the complaint you’ll see how this 3-day trip highlighted one piece of my direct manager’s sexual harassment. Harassment that included date requests like ‘dinner-&-a-movie’ behind her husband’s back.

b. I’m going to leave it at that. So, back to the exams.

02:58 = Disparate Treatment (Salary, Privileges)

4. When I returned from the trip, Allstate increased my salary to reflect the new credential. As the facts show, though, Allstate paid me an annual salary that was significantly lower than the salary it paid to its other ASAs. To be clear: Allstate had several other ASAs, and it paid me the lowest salary out of all of them.

Running throughout my 3-year tenure was Allstate’s continual refusal to let me work remotely. I asked management on a regular basis if I could work from home. They denied my request every time. Yet, they’ve allowed everyone else from the actuarial department to work from home. In fact, one such employee worked in Maryland (700 miles away).

Allstate let everyone work from home, except the black guy.

04:13 = Eighth Exam Passed

5. In Fall 2014, I passed my eighth actuarial exam. This meant I was just two exams shy of my FSA.

a. I must also note that Allstate had (and still has) actuaries who stopped taking exams upon achieving ASA status. These people are commonly called “Career ASAs”. One such person was Nasreen Ali. In fact, Allstate hired Ms. Ali as a Career ASA. She never passed another exam; and I don’t think she even tried.

I, however, intended to get my FSA, so I kept taking exams.

05:07 = "1-in-3 Rule"

6. Allstate had a rule that if you fail to pass an exam in 3-sittings then it will remove you from the ACP. The 9th exam slowed me down, and in July 2016 I learned that I failed to satisfy this rule.

05:28 = $1,025 Discrepant Payment

7. Leading up to that 9th exam, my manager told me that I would have to pay for the exam fee myself. It cost $1,025.

a. Allstate, however, never made anyone else pay for their actuarial exam fees.

i. Victor Ciurte found himself in the same boat as me (multiple times in fact), Allstate never made him pay for the exam.

ii. Tetyana Dostie found herself in the same boat as me; Allstate never made her pay for the exam fee

iii. Josh Garcia, Kazuhiko Nagai. And on & on.

Allstate only made the black guy pay for an exam fee ($1,025).

06:27 = Termination

8. So, as mentioned, the exam results came out in July 2016, and they were not favorable to me. A couple weeks later - on August 12, 2016 - my manager took me down to the HR office; where the HR director told me I was being fired. Effective immediately.

He said the reason was because I failed an actuarial exam. Neither he nor my manager gave any other reason.

He added that this was “extremely rare”.

07:09 = Illegitamacy I (Termination Rationale)

9. The exam failure wasn’t rare; the termination response was. And it was discriminatory. Allstate had plenty other employees who also failed exams:

a. Victor Ciurte
b. Tetyana Dostie
c. Josh Garcia
d. Phil Kite
e. Anna Lunder
f. Kazuhiko Nagai
g. Bridget Tennant

Allstate, of course, never fired any of these people for also failing. All of whom, importantly, were of a different demographic.

Moreover, Allstate had a number of employees who were never even required to take exams. Including, but not limited to, Nasreen Ali.

08:12 = Illegitamacy II (Replacement Hires)

10. Plus, immediately after terminating me, Allstate hired two non-actuaries to replace me. Neither of whom had even attempted an actuarial exam (let alone pass one).

The first was Patricia Boland. She had zero exams to her name. The second was Christopher Mirisola. He had zero exams to his name.

So, Allstate fired me – a guy with 8 exams passed – and replaced me with two people who combined to have 0 exams passed.

Remember: Allstate fired me “solely” because I failed an exam.

Indeed, about a year after firing me Allstate told state authorities that it fired me “solely” because I failed an exam. It said so under oath.

09:19 = Pretext

11. It is clear cut, Allstate’s reason for terminating me was bogus. It was just a cover for its discriminatory animus.

a. It had plenty of employees who also failed exams. All of whom were of a different demographic. Allstate never fired them for failing an exam.

b. Allstate had plenty of actuarial employees who were never even required to take exams. Allstate never fired them. All of them were of a different demographic.

c. Allstate had employees who stopped taking exams while never achieving the exam success of the black guy. All of them were of a different demographic. Allstate never fired them.

d. Allstate even replaced me with people who had no exam prowess whatsoever. Both of whom were of a different demographic.

10:38 = Current Status

12. But as soon as the black guy failed an exam, they fired him. They pounced at the chance.

a. Of course, that ‘black guy’ ended up passing the 9th exam right after termination. He passed the 10th during the lawsuit. He walked across the stage a year after that, and now he’s an FSA. That black guy is me.

i. So, Allstate claimed it wanted its employees to become FSAs. Yet, they hampered the black guy when he got near the finish line, and fired him for falling beforehand. He got back up, and he got to the finish line.

ii. Yet all along, Allstate rewarded its non-black-male employees who never even got close. Never even entered the marathon.

iii. I think this picture summarizes it best.

Allstate & I are still litigating this case to this day.

12:04 = Outro

Alright, that’s how Allstate Insurance Company discriminated against me. This has been a textbook case of employment discrimination.

The trouble – as you might know (if you’ve watched my video on a judge’s perjury) – is that these facts run counter to the widespread propaganda of black inferiority. Propaganda most popularly propelled by the Ku Klux Klan. Propaganda that a Florida judge perjured himself in order to uphold. Others have engaged in harmful acts & omissions as well.

These facts, however, exist forever. And the facts that I’ve presented to you here are independently verifiable; and binary. There is no room for interpretation (lower salary vs higher salary; work-from-home denied vs work-from-home allowed; thousand-dollar payment vs no payment; fired vs not fired).

The bottom line is: Allstate discriminates on the basis of race, sex, and color; and it retaliates against those who complain about the discrimination.