We’ve been writing about a newly aggressive NLRB, and now here comes the EEOC. EEOC.gov’s home page now features lawsuit summaries that close with an appeal for wronged applicants or employees to contact the agency and, presumably, join the class of litigants.
Here are three typical pleas from eeoc.gov:
Texas Roadhouse Litigation
“The EEOC has sued the Texas Roadhouse chain of restaurants, claiming that Texas Roadhouse did not hire people age 40 and older because of their age.
If you believe you may have been denied a front of the house position such as server, hostess/host, bartender, etc. at Texas Roadhouse because of your age or if you have any information, please contact the EEOC.”
Bass Pro Litigation
“The EEOC has sued Bass Pro Outdoor World, claiming that it did not hire people because of their race (African-American or black) or national origin (Hispanic or Latino) and that Bass Pro retaliated against employees who complained about discrimination.
If you applied for a job at any Bass Pro location and think you may not have been hired due to your race or national origin or if you have any information, please contact the EEOC.”
Mavis Discount Tire Litigation
“The EEOC has sued Mavis Discount Tire, claiming that Mavis did not hire women as Managers, Assistant Managers, Mechanics, Tire Installers, and similar jobs because of their sex. The agency says the company systematically rejected all women applicants.
If you applied for a job at any Mavis Discount Tire or Cole Muffler location and think you may not have been hired because you are a woman, or you have any information, please contact the EEOC.”
So, all employers should be on warning; the EEOC is on the march, looking for systemic discrimination. (“Systemic discrimination” means situations in which the process or practice discriminates against significant numbers of applicants or employees, as opposed to a discrimination case involving only a single employee.)
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The EEOC is soliciting not only class members but also anyone with any information that would be helpful to EEOC’s suit.
Mavis Tire Is (Allegedly) Egregious
Meanwhile, as presented by the EEOC, Mavis Tire seems to be a fairly egregious case.
The EEOC says Mavis Discount Tire refused to hire women for a wide variety of positions despite some applicants’ superior qualifications. The Millwood, New York-based company, which also operates as Mavis Tire Supply Corporation and Mavis Tire NY and owns Cole Muffler, Inc., sells tires and a variety of other automotive parts and services in some 110 facilities throughout the Northeast.
At issue are Mavis’s store and service center jobs of tire installers, mechanics, assistant managers, managers, and related positions.
According to the EEOC, since at least 2008, only one woman was employed in any of these positions out of approximately 800 employees. Also, out of some 1,300 hires made between 2008 and 2010 for those positions, not one was female.
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1 in 800 Is Strong Evidence
“Evidence of sex discrimination doesn’t get much starker than having just one woman employee out of eight hundred,” says Gillian L. Thomas, trial attorney in the New York District Office. Hard to argue with that assessment.
And, of course, the problems go well beyond the legal issues. When women who have read about this case are choosing which tire store to visit, are they likely to pick Mavis?
In tomorrow’s Advisor, a discrimination checklist from BLR’s HR Audit Checklists that may help you find problems before the feds do.
How many of the applicants for those 800 positions were women? What was the ratio of men to women?
Is this your role now, HR Advisor, to solicit for the EEOC? There’s a word for that……