Dive Brief:
- An Ohio machining company that allegedly retaliated against an HR director and systematically discriminated against female job applicants agreed Nov. 18 to a $2 million settlement of a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
- Glunt Industries denied production jobs to a class of women and subjected the HR director to less favorable treatment than male managers for her role in hiring two female project managers, EEOC claimed. The commission alleged the company later fired the two hires and replaced them with male employees. Separately, EEOC claimed Glunt Industries did not provide women’s restrooms on the plant floors of its facilities.
- Per the settlement, Glunt Industries agreed to provide monetary and injunctive relief including cooperating with EEOC to provide equal employment opportunities for the female production job applicants. The company denied EEOC’s allegations.
Dive Insight:
Several EEOC settlements in recent years involved discrimination claims specifically affecting HR professionals, a reminder of the profession’s involvement in investigating and reporting internal wrongdoing at organizations.
Last year, EEOC inked agreements in at least two cases alleging retaliation against HR professionals. One centered on claims that a construction company chastised an HR manager for investigating sexual harassment complaints, while another firm allegedly fired an HR employee who directly experienced harassment.
The agency also has cracked down on instances in which women have been denied job opportunities due to favoritism of male candidates.
For example, EEOC announced in March a $1.6 million settlement with an Alabama firm that allegedly maintained a “male only” hiring policy for certain jobs. EEOC claimed that the employer’s HR database directly instructed staff to schedule female candidates for affected roles.
In 2024, a staffing agency paid $875,000 over claims that it complied with client requests to only hire male workers. A separate settlement followed allegations that a trucking company refused to hire qualified female job applicants.
“For more than 60 years, sex discrimination in hiring, job assignments, and other employment decisions has been unlawful,” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said in an agency press release on the Glunt Industries settlement. “And the agency has made clear that failing to provide women with restrooms constitutes sex discrimination as well.”
