Posted on February 18, 2010 by Tiffany Schmidt

The Price for Failing to Investigate a Sexual Harassment Claim = $4.5 million

The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) office received a black eye this month, when a judge with the Northern District of Iowa federal court issued an order requiring the EEOC to pay more than $4.5 million dollars in costs and attorneys fees in a dismissed lawsuit against a trucking company.

Many people, including Debra L. Reilly of the Workplace Investigations Blog and Tom Crane from the San Antonio Employment Law Blog are blogging from differing perspectives on this recent federal court decision.

The EEOC had filed a series of claims against trucking company CRST Van Expedited, alleging sexual harassment of female employees. The Court dismissed the case, finding the EEOC had failed to investigate and consolidate individual claims prior to bringing the Title VII lawsuit. The judge did not appreciate the EEOC’s litigation strategy of ‘sue first, ask questions later’.

As Ms. Reilly and Mr. Crane point out on their blogs, it is important to investigate claims before proceeding with a lawsuit. Rest assured the EEOC will not be making this mistake again. All employers should be aware EEOC will be more cautious in the future.

 

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Posted on January 13, 2010 by Marylee Abrams

Before You Conduct a Criminal Background Check or a Credit Report on a Job Applicant....

Cindy Hanson and Kali Wilson Beyah of “Corporate Counsel” magazine and blog, warn employers to stop using credit reports and criminal background checks to weed out job applicants, or risk being embroiled in an EEOC lawsuit.

EEOC has taken the position that, due to the disproportionate conviction and arrest numbers of African American and Hispanic people as compared to white people, blanket policies regarding employment decisions based on arrest and conviction information are presumed to have a disparate discriminatory impact on African American and Hispanic applicants.

Until the issues are resolved by the courts, employers should make sure background checks are job-related for the position in question and are consistent with business necessity.

I agree with the authors suggestions for employers to;

  • Apply testing criteria in the same way to all individuals.

  • Audit hiring pools to determine if there is a disparate hiring impact on any one group of applicants.

  • Tailor the type of the background check conducted to the nature of the position.

  • Document the rationale for the type of the background check conducted.
     

 

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