HONOLULU -- Norwegian Cruise Line has agreed to pay $485,000 to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by seven Middle Eastern men fired from a Hawaii cruise ship.
The seven employees -- all of them Muslims from Yemen -- lost their jobs on NCL's interisland cruise ship Pride of Aloha in 2006.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit on their behalf, saying they were fired as "terrorism risks" even though the FBI said they were not threats.
"It is important to terminate people on objective factors, and here, when you have the FBI saying that there was no security issue and still terminating them, we believe that was based on stereotyping and profiling," said Anna Park of the EEOC.
NCL America agreed to pay the money to the men and hire an equal employment consultant as well as update its workplace policies and management.
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