EEOC Cracks Down on Discriminatory Hiring Practices
A detailed report on EEOC perspective appears on the National Law Journal.
By Tresa Baldas
The federal government has launched an initiative aimed at cracking down on discriminatory hiring practices in the workplace -- a program that could land unsuspecting employers in court, employment attorneys are warning.
That's what happened to Walgreen Co. this month, lawyers note, when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission hit the national pharmacy chain with a class action alleging widespread racial bias against thousands of African-American workers. EEOC v. Walgreen Co., No. 07-172, (S.D. Ill.).
The suit came one week after the EEOC announced "E-RACE" (Eradicating Racism and Colorism from Employment), an initiative that will have federal investigators paying much closer attention to how minorities are hired and promoted.
FOCUS ON HIRING
Specifically, the EEOC will focus on hiring decisions that are based on names, arrest and conviction records, employment and personality tests and credit scores -- all of which may disparately impact people of color.
For example, an African-American might be denied a job when an arrest record shows up on a background check or if a credit score turns out to be low. Such criteria, which have a disparate impact on minorities, were not considered in the past. But employers are increasingly considering such factors when hiring, and may unwittingly be denying jobs to large classes of minorities.
Many states have laws that restrict employers from asking about or considering criminal records when hiring. The EEOC holds that if an employer denies a job to an applicant because he or she has a criminal record, it could be considered discrimination if the person is a minority.
The EEOC also has a new specialized task force -- formed last year -- that will handle evidence turned up by E-RACE. Regional attorneys and directors will investigate in more detail and attempt to establish a pattern of discrimination within industries or employers, and present it to headquarters for possible litigation.
"I don't want employers to get the impression that they're some kind of bull's-eye," said EEOC attorney Paula Bruner, special assistant to the EEOC chairwoman. "We want them to be aware they need to step up in terms of their compliance with our laws."
According to the EEOC, race discrimination complaints continue to be the number one complaint made to the EEOC. In 2006, a total of 27,238 such complaints were filed. The EEOC also has seen a substantial increase over the past 15 years in discrimination claims based on color, which have soared from 374 in 1992 to 1,241 in 2006.
Lawyers, meanwhile, are warning employers to scrutinize their hiring and promoting practices.
"I think employers need to be alert that individual [race] charges could be expanded ... and I think that lawyers who are not alert to how the EEOC can broaden a charge and turn it into a systemic investigation can injure their client," said Donald Livingston from the Washington office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, who is defending several companies in race discrimination lawsuits.
According to the EEOC, Walgreens assigned African-American managers, management trainees, and pharmacists to low-performing stores in poor neighborhoods because of their race, and denied them promotions. A similar, private class action is pending against Walgreens in Illinois. Tucker et al v. Walgreen Co., No. 05-cv-440-GPM (S.D. Ill.).
Walgreens officials deny the allegations, noting that its African-American store and district managers represent more than 17 percent of total employees in those positions, compared with the industry average of 9 percent.
But most employers are already complying with anti-discrimination laws, countered Mark Ogden, of the Phoenix office of San Francisco's Littler Mendelson, who believes that the EEOC's beefed-up investigations will come up empty.
"Companies all over the country have made workplace diversity a priority and it seems to be working well, " Ogden said. "I think employers know generally what disparate-impact discrimination is. I think most employers are vigilant to make sure it doesn't happen. If they conclude that it is happening, they modify the policy so that it doesn't."
Gayla Crain, of the Dallas office of New York's Epstein Becker & Green, believes that companies can also brace themselves for new EEOC rules on discriminatory hiring. "When EEOC implements new rules or procedures on discriminatory hiring practices -- and I believe they will -- the new requirements of systemizing their hiring practices will seem onerous and expensive."
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Comments
I’m glad that EEOC is making a stand for these discriminated employees from Walgreen. Such biased corporate policies are shocking in this day and age, but hard to recognize, as they are more stealthy in nature, compared to outright racial slurs.
Here are a couple of articles that could be of interest to those following this case:
USA Today’s article Walgreen accused of practicing racial bias
This link has a good history of the case.
Posted by: Vanessa Johnson | April 3, 2007 2:46 AM