Dive Brief:
- A Maryland retirement community will pay $85,000 to settle U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims that it refused to promote a Black manager and subsequently fired her when she complained of discrimination, EEOC said in a press release Tuesday.
- Per the 2024 complaint, the plaintiff sought promotion to a vice president or executive director position, but was told that she was ineligible because she lacked a bachelor’s degree. She alleged Westminster Ingleside King Farm Presbyterian Retirement Communities nonetheless employed a White employee who lacked a bachelor’s degree as its VP of HR and promoted another White employee with the same job title as the plaintiff to an executive director role.
- The plaintiff later received a bachelor’s degree, but EEOC claimed her supervisor ignored the plaintiff’s promotion request. It also alleged she received a “false” written warning from HR, after which the plaintiff expressed a desire to file a race discrimination charge. She was terminated shortly afterward. EEOC alleged violations of federal laws including Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. As part of its consent decree with EEOC, the employer did not admit wrongdoing.
Dive Insight:
The EEOC noted that retaliation — such as that alleged in the Westminster Ingleside lawsuit — is unlawful irrespective of the validity of an employee’s claims.
Such complaints “can be early warning signs for employers,” Debra Lawrence, regional attorney at EEOC, said in the press release. “What employers should never do is treat complaints as the problem or take adverse action against the complainant.”
According to agency enforcement guidance, employers may not retaliate against employees for opposing unlawful equal employment opportunity practices. This opposition may include actions such as complaining or threatening to complain about alleged discrimination against oneself or others.
Retaliation has formed the basis of previous EEOC settlements with employers, including a 2024 agreement between the agency and an employer that it alleged retaliated against three employees — including an HR manager — for raising concerns about discriminatory workplace treatment.
Employers should swiftly and thoroughly investigate employee complaints — with the assistance of an external investigator if necessary, an employment law attorney wrote in an op-ed to HR Dive in March.
