US Secret Service Settles Discrimination Case

The United States Secret Service has agreed to pay $24 million to settle a case involving more than 100 African-American agents.
美国特勤局同意支付2400万美元了结一桩涉及100多名非洲裔美国特工的案件。

The agents claimed they faced discrimination at work because of their race.
这些特工声称自己在工作中受到了种族歧视。

The Secret Service also agreed to take steps to help its employees move up within the organization.
美国特勤局还同意采取措施帮助其员工在该组织内部获得晋升。

Secret Service agents have been in the news this week because of increased security for the swearing-in of Donald Trump as president.
由于川普宣誓就职总统导致的安保升级，美国特勤局特工本周持续受到了新闻媒体的关注。

The Secret Service guards the president, his family and other U.S. officials. The agency also investigates financial crimes.
美国特勤局负责保护总统、总统家人以及其他美国官员。该机构还负责调查金融犯罪。

In 2000, ten agents asked a federal court to force the agency to make changes in the way it promoted its agents. They said the Secret Service showed discrimination in deciding who was offered employment, moved to a higher position, sent to other offices and received bonus payments. They also said race played a deciding role in how people were punished for wrongdoing.
在2000年，有10名特工要求联邦法院强制该机构就其员工晋升办法做出改革。他们表示，特勤局在决定谁被雇佣、晋升、调到其它办公室、获得奖金上存在种族歧视。他们还称，种族在人们因不法行为而受到惩戒方面也起到了决定性作用。

Reginald Moore worked as a Secret Service agent for more than 20 years. He claimed that between 1999 and 2002, he asked for a job promotion more than 180 times but was never chosen.
雷金纳德·摩尔（Reginald Moore）已经在特勤局工作了二十多年。他声称在1999年到2002年期间，他递交了180多次晋升申请都没有被选中。

Moore was later promoted twice. But in court documents he said those moves happened only after he was moved to another office, made an official protest against the agency, and then took legal action.
摩尔随后两次被升职。但在法庭文件中他表示，这些都发生在他调到另一个办公室，对该机构提出正式抗议并采取法律行动之后。

Many of the other agents said they had similar experiences. A 2006 court document says top agency officials had for many years failed to act on their criticisms.
许多其他特工都表示他们也有类似经历。一份2006年的法庭文件显示，高层官员多年来都未能对这些批评采取行动。

The agents said the Secret Service, in their words, "has failed to protect its African-American Special Agents from racial discrimination in virtually every aspect of their employment. Discrimination against African-American Agents in the Secret Service has become part of the fabric of the agency and has spanned several decades."
特工们的原话是，美国特勤局“实际上在就业的各个方面都未能保护其非洲裔特工不受到种族歧视。在特勤局，对非洲裔特工的歧视已经成为该机构的一部分，并且已经延续几十年。”

The agreement reached this week says the agents who made claims will be paid up to $300,000.
本周达成的协议显示，提出索赔的特工将会获得最高30万美元。

The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Jeh Johnson leads the department. In a statement, he said the agreement is "the right thing to do." He said the agency has made changes to its policies.
特勤局隶属于国土安全部。杰·强森（Jeh Johnson）领导了该部门。他在一份声明中表示，达成协议是正确的做法。他说该机构已经对其政策做出了改革。

"I am pleased that we are able to finally put this chapter of Secret Service history behind us. Had the matter gone to trial, it would have required that we re-live things long past, just at a time when the Secret Service is on the mend."
强森说，“我很高兴我们终于能够了结特勤局的这段历史。如果上庭审判的话，就会要求我们回顾那些已经过去很久的事情，而特勤局目前正在改善之中。”

Court documents note that the agency's promotion system begins with examiners rating agents on their writing and speaking ability. The agents are also rated on their ability to lead and direct others and to consider problems and suggest solutions.
法庭文件指出，该机构的晋升制度一开始是由审查员评定特工的写作和口语能力，还将评定特工领导、指挥他人，以及考虑问题并提出解决方案的能力。

Those ratings are then used to create a list of agents who the examiners believe are best-qualified for promotion. Having the top rating does not guarantee that an agent will be promoted, however. Instead, a senior agency official makes a suggestion to a group of other leaders. This group then tells the director of the agency who it believes should be promoted.
然后这些评定等级被用于建立一个审查员认为最适合晋升的特工名单。然而，评级最高并不能保证特工获得晋升。相反是由一名高级官员向一群其他领导人提出建议。然后，由这群人告知该机构负责人，他们认为谁应该获得晋升。

The agreement notes that the agency has made changes to the first step in this process -- the rating system. These changes were based on the suggestions of experts who do not work for the agency.
该协议指出，该机构已经对第一步流程，也就是评级体系做出了改革。这些改革是基于该机构以外专家的建议。

The agreement says the second part of the process -- choosing the agents to be promoted -- will also be changed, using ideas from non-agency experts.
协议称第二步流程，也就是选择获得晋升的特工这一流程也将进行改革，改为采用非机构专家的意见。

The group of officials who tell the agency director which agents should be promoted is now required to note why each agent was chosen. The group must also note why agents were not chosen.
官员小组告知该机构负责人哪位特工应该晋升，现在他们被要求指出每位特工被选中晋升的理由，还必须指出特工未被选中晋升的理由。

Also, the Secret Service will pay a non-agency expert to examine the process to decide if any parts of it cause harm to African-American candidates. If the experts find that harm is caused, they will advise the agency on ways to end it.
此外，特勤局还将聘请一位非机构专家审查这一流程，并确定是否有任何部分流程对非洲裔候选人造成伤害。如果专家发现会造成伤害，他们将建议该机构如何停止伤害。