Dive Brief:
- Mid-Michigan Home Health & Hospice agreed to pay $41,137 to resolve a lawsuit by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that alleged it refused to assign a Black certified nursing assistant to certain clients because it believed they were “old-time” and “did not care for black people,” EEOC announced Nov. 3. The CNA was fired after she repeatedly complained, EEOC said.
- Under a five-year consent decree in EEOC v. Mid-Michigan Home Health & Hospice LLC, in addition to the payment, the company is prohibited for the duration of the decree from assigning home visits based on race and from retaliating against employees for complaining about race discrimination. The company must also submit annual reports on locations where each CNA was assigned and annually train all employees, including the owner, on race discrimination.
- The settlement is the second in four months involving EEOC allegations that a company complied with a client’s discriminatory preferences. “We commend Mid-Michigan for reaching a resolution of this matter and putting in place practices to ensure home assignments are not based on race, regardless of customer preference,” EEOC Regional Attorney Kenneth Bird stated in the announcement.
Dive Insight:
EEOC sued Mid-Michigan for alleged race discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Mid-Michigan did not respond to a request for a comment.
According to the February lawsuit, the CNA provided in-home bathing assistance to patients. When she asked the HR director why a White co-worker hired after her was getting more hours than she was, she was told the company believed patients in the area at issue did not want to be assigned Black employees, the lawsuit alleged.
Instead, Mid-Michigan repeatedly assigned White CNAs to the area, which was close to where the Black CNA lived, and assigned her to visit patients 90 miles away, according to the EEOC. She complained about race discrimination and was fired two days after she questioned why she had been removed from several assignments, the lawsuit alleged.
“Customer preference is not a defense to race discrimination,” Bird said at the time. Under the consent decree, the CNA will receive $1,137 in lost wages and $40,000 in compensatory damages.
In July, staffing agency WorkSmart agreed to pay $150,000 to settle an EEOC lawsuit alleging it failed to hire or refer women for laborer positions after a client said it would only accept male laborers at the facility. WorkSmart denied any wrongdoing.
That same month, a jury found for EEOC in a separate case, reminding employers they can also be liable for letting employees act on discriminatory preferences. In the case, EEOC alleged that two female obstetricians in the labor and delivery department of an Arkansas hospital refused to allow a male surgical technician perform his duties, including setting up for and assisting during deliveries, solely because of his sex and because they wanted to work with women.
The technician eventually quit, and EEOC sued the hospital for violating Title VII. Following a trial, the jury awarded him $105,000.
