Despite OFCCP’s recent focus on compensation discrimination, pre-employment testing and good faith efforts for veterans and disabled individuals, the agency continues to investigate and enforce standard hiring discrimination cases. Two recent OFCCP settlement agreements resolving allegations of hiring discrimination, while not the largest of OFCCP settlements, reinforce OFCCP’s continued commitment to investigate applicant-to-hire adverse impact.
Lund Boat Company recently agreed to pay $295,000 to a class of 185 women and offer jobs to 27 of the class members to resolve OFCCP’s allegations of gender discrimination at the company’s Minnesota manufacturing facility.
Meyer Tool Inc. also recently agreed to pay $325,000 to a class of 60 African-American applicants and offer jobs to at least 11 of the applicants who were rejected for entry-level machinist positions at the company’s manufacturing plant in Cincinnati.
The Take-Away
These recent settlements reinforce the importance of:
- Properly defined applicant pools
- Accurate applicant flow data that tracks each applicant through the hiring process
- Consistently applied hiring policies and/or basic qualifications
Without these, it is difficult for an employer to satisfy its burden of demonstrating it made hiring decisions based on legitimate, non-discriminatory factors – which could lead to OFCCP to conclude the company’s hiring practices were discriminatory.
It is also critical to understand that use of a third-party staffing agency does not alleviate an employer’s applicant tracking obligations. Companies utilizing staffing agencies should review their contracts to ensure the staffing agency understands expectations surrounding race and gender data collection, record retention, good faith efforts and listing positions with state employment services.