N.J. auto parts shop accused of bias in hiring

A South Jersey auto parts shop discriminated against a 54-year-old African American job applicant when it refused to hire him, instead choosing two younger, non-African American individuals, state officials said Tuesday.

Anthony Sturgis, of Lindenwold, had applied for a delivery-driver job in November 2012 at Continental Auto Parts, a Newark-based company that had a Mount Laurel facility at the time (it has since moved to Pennsauken).

The Mount Laurel branch manager sounded excited in talking to Sturgis by phone, but the manager's demeanor was "markedly different" when Sturgis and he met in person, state officials said.

The civil rights division of the New Jersey Attorney General's Office said it filed a complaint last week in Superior Court in Mercer County against the company. The complaint says the business discriminated against applicants like Sturgis based on age and race.

The complaint asks the court to order the company to stop using the alleged discriminatory hiring practices, and to be monitored by the civil rights division for two years. Continental has denied the allegations.

"This company's definitely a very diverse company, we do not discriminate," spokeswoman Evelyn Nieves said Tuesday. She said that across the company's seven locations, there are 225 employees, about 190 of whom are black, Asian, or Hispanic.

- Michael Boren