EEOC Cracks Down on Discriminatory Hiring Practices

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EEOC Cracks Down on Discriminatory Hiring
Practices

• Nation-wide initiative known as
• E-RACE

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E-RACE (Eradicating Racism and Colorism from
Employment)

• Labeled as an outreach, education and
  enforcement campaign to bring a fresh, 21st
  century approach to combating racism in the
  workplace in 2007 the EEOC launched a
  nation-wide initiative known as E-RACE.
• Most notably the EEOCs initiative is an emphasis
  on bringing class action claims directed toward
  employers that have policies or practices that
  result in systematic discrimination.
• Employers need to know
• Individual (race) charges can be expanded into
  broad systemic investigations by the EEOC

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EEOC Scrutiny in Hiring Practices

• Through the E-RACE initiative, the EEOC will
  focus primarily on policies and practices that
  have a disparate impact on employees on the basis
  of race and color.
• What is Race?
• Title VII does not contain a definition of
  race. Race discrimination includes
  discrimination on the basis of ancestry or
  physical or cultural characteristics associated
  with a certain race, such as skin color, hair
  texture or styles, or certain facial features.

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EEOC Scrutiny in Hiring Practices

• What is Color
• Color discrimination occurs when a person is
  discriminated against based on his/her skin
  pigmentation (lightness or darkness of the skin),
  complexion, shade or tone. Color discrimination
  can occur between persons of different races or
  ethnicities, or even between persons of the same
  race and ethnicity. For example, an African
  American employer violates Title VII if he
  refuses to hire other African Americans whose
  skin is either darker or lighter than his own.
• Types of Race/ Color Discrimination
• Color Discrimination
• Same Race Discrimination
• Intersectional Discrimination/ Harassment
• Associational Discrimination
• Biracial Discrimination
• Code Words

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EEOC Scrutiny in Hiring Practices

• One of the areas receiving the most scrutiny will
  be employers hiring practices and decisions.
• The EEOC believes that employers hiring
  practices may have a disparate impact upon people
  of color through employment decisions based on
  names, arrest and conviction records, employment
  and personality tests, and credit scores.

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EEOC Scrutiny in Hiring Practices

• 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 a 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 record
  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.

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EEOC Scrutiny in Hiring Practices

• To make sure that its new initiative would be
  taken seriously, within one week of announcing
  E-RACE the EEOC filed a class lawsuit against
  Walgreens alleging that the nation-wide chain
  assigned managers, management trainees and
  pharmacists to low-performing stores and stores
  in African American communities because of their
  race. Without admitting liability, Walgreens
  settled the suit in July 2007 by agreeing to pay
  20 million dollars to be distributed amongst an
  estimated 10,000 class members.
• A Michigan employer agreed to pay 500,000 to
  settle a class race bias lawsuit based upon
  allegations that the employer refused to hire
  African Americans who were employed by a company
  they acquired through an asset acquisition.

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EEOC Scrutiny in Hiring Practices

• In light of the EEOCs E-RACE and Systemic
  Initiatives, employers need to take a closer look
  at their hiring policies and practices to make
  sure they are achieving diversity objectives and
  have not created unintended barriers to
  individuals based upon race and color. Employers
  can implement the following best practices with
  regard to recruitment and hiring
• Implement recruiting and hiring promotion
  practices designed to widen and diversify the
  pool of candidates considered for all employment
  openings.
• Conduct periodic self-audits to determine whether
  current employment practices have a
  disproportionate effect on individuals based upon
  a persons race or color.
• Create objective, job related qualification
  standards for job openings, and make sure that
  those standards are objectively and consistently
  applied when selecting job candidates and make
  sure that job openings are communicated and made
  known to all eligible employees.

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EEOC Cracks Down on Discriminatory Hiring
Practices

• I dont want employers to get the impression
  that they are some kind of bulls-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.

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EEOC Cracks Down on Discriminatory Hiring
Practices