US Labor Department sues Convergys for refusing to comply with investigation of employment practices

PRESS RELEASE

 

Complaint asks judge to order cooperation or ban company from federal contracting

ATLANTA – The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit to require Cincinnati-based Convergys Customer Management Group Inc. to submit documents detailing the federal contractor’s affirmative action plans and supporting documents for company facilities in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.

Filed with the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges, the suit requires Convergys to provide the department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs with all documents and information requested, cooperate with scheduled compliance reviews and fully comply with the requirements of all laws enforced by the agency. If the company fails to comply, the department seeks to cancel the company’s current federal contracts and ban Convergys from future federal contracting.

“Convergys knew when it became a federal contractor that it would be held to equal employment standards,” said OFCCP Director Patricia A. Shiu. “Refusing to cooperate, in even the most basic ways – providing required paperwork to the department – flies in the face of the compact all contractors have with the American taxpayer. This agency is prepared to take all actions necessary to correct this, up to and including seeking to ban future government contracts for Convergys.”

This is the second lawsuit filed by OFCCP against the company. On Oct. 23, 2015, Chief Administrative Law Judge Stephen R. Henley held that OFCCP’s compliance evaluation scheduling process regarding seven other Convergys facilities complied with the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. To date, Convergys has refused to comply with the judge’s recommended order and has filed exceptions with the department’s Administrative Review Board.

The department’s latest action seeks affirmative action plans and related documents for Convergys facilities in Jacksonville and Tamarac, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; Valdosta, Georgia; and Chattanooga and Clarksville, Tennessee.

Convergys is a global customer-service management provider that supplies the federal government with agent-assisted and self-service software. The company has more than 125,000 employees at locations in 22 U.S. states and 31 countries.

OFCCP enforces Executive Order 11246, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974. As amended, these three laws make it illegal for contractors and subcontractors doing business with the federal government to discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or status as a protected veteran. For more information, please call OFCCP's toll-free helpline at 800-397-6251 or visit http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/.

Fort Myer Construction settles discrimination and harassment case

Fort Myer Construction Corp. has agreed to settle charges that it violated Executive Order 11246 by failing to provide equal employment opportunities to employees and job applicants at 413 construction sites in the D.C. metropolitan area.

An agreement reached by the federal contractor and the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs resolves allegations that between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2010, the company discriminated against 27 qualified women and 136 qualified African Americans who applied for jobs as laborers, and unfairly terminated eight African American skilled laborers. It also resolves pay discrimination charges stemming from Fort Myer Construction's practice of assigning equally qualified workers performing the same jobs to projects paying different hourly rates, some with fewer work hours. This resulted in lower wages for 44 African American and 156 Hispanic laborers.

"Strong enforcement and vigilance are critical to opening doors of opportunity for more women and minorities in the construction industry, ensuring that all workers get an equal shot at getting to work on the highest-paying projects," said OFCCP Director Patricia A. Shiu.

OFCCP's investigation of Fort Myer Construction began in January 2011 during the agency's review of companies involved in constructing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's consolidated headquarters in southeastern D.C. Because that project is valued above $25 million and will last more than a year, this undertaking has been designated by the Labor Department as a Mega Construction Project, which is a priority area for OFCCP. More than 300 workers were interviewed over the course of the compliance evaluation, which focused on Fort Meyer Construction's employment practices in 2010.

"Getting those workers in the door and keeping them is going to take more than improved applicant tracking and better pay policies," said OFCCP Mid-Atlantic Regional Director Michele Hodge. "It's going to take a concerted effort by Fort Myer Construction's leadership to change a culture that devalues too many workers."

During their investigation, OFCCP compliance officers received more than 30 phone calls alerting them to charges of harassment, intimidation, threats and coercion at work. The agency discovered that supervisors at Fort Myer Construction used hostile and derogatory language toward African American and Hispanic employees, as well as a disabled veteran. The supervisors sexually harassed and tried to date female subordinates. African American women were locked out of restroom facilities and had feces left in their work trucks. A company vice president tried to interfere in OFCCP's investigation by discouraging Hispanic employees from talking to agency inspectors conducting an onsite review. Even a female investigator from OFCCP was subjected to inappropriate sexual jokes by a superintendent while at a Fort Myer Construction work site.

Under the terms of the settlement, Fort Myer Construction will pay $900,000 in back wages and interest to 371 class members and make job offers to seven women and 30 African Americans from that class as laborer positions become available. The company has also agreed to undertake extensive training and monitoring measures to ensure that all its employment practices – including hiring, termination and compensation – fully comply with the laws enforced by OFCCP.

D.C.-based Fort Myer Construction builds, repairs and maintains streets, roads, bridges and underground utilities. In 2010, the company received more than $400 million in federal funds for work on 155 construction projects in the D.C. area. Some of its largest contracts that year were with the U.S. Department of Transportation, General Services Administration, Navy Department, National Park Service and Smithsonian Institution.

Source: DOL

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

Proposed Rule to improve pay transparency for employees of federal contractors

Prohibits federal contractors, subcontractors from discriminating against workers who discuss pay

 

The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs today announced a proposed rule that would prohibit federal contractors from maintaining pay secrecy policies. Under the terms of the proposal, federal contractors and subcontractors may not fire or otherwise discriminate against any employee or applicant for discussing, disclosing or inquiring about their compensation or that of another employee or applicant.

"Workers cannot solve a problem unless they are able to identify it. And they cannot identify it if they aren't free to talk about it without fear of reprisal," said OFCCP Director Patricia A. Shiu. "Pay transparency isn't just good for workers. It's good for business. Fairness and openness are great qualities for a company's brand."

President Obama signed Executive Order 13665 on April 8, instructing the secretary of labor to propose a rule within 160 days to require pay transparency among federal contractors. The proposed rule, available for public inspection today, would amend the equal opportunity clauses in Executive Order 11246 to afford protections to workers who talk about pay. It would also add definitions for compensation, compensation information, and essential job functions, terms which appear in the revised clauses. The proposal also establishes two types of defenses that contractors can use against allegations of discrimination under EO 13665.

The rule will be published in the Sept. 17 issue of the Federal Register and open for public comment for 90 days. To learn more about the proposed rule, please visit http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/PayTransparencyNPRM.

Source: DOL

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling in Oklahoma City settles sex discrimination case with US Labor Department

Nearly 1,300 women to share $475K in back wages and interest

Following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling Co. has agreed to pay $475,000 in back wages and interest to settle allegations of sex discrimination affecting 1,293 female job seekers. OFCCP investigators determined that Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling unfairly rejected these qualified women for merchandiser, driver, driver trainee, production and warehouse positions at the company's bottling and distribution facility in Oklahoma City.

"We cannot build a 21st century workforce by leaving more than half our people behind," said OFCCP Director Patricia A. Shiu. "It is past time for employers to recognize that skills, not sex, should be the determining factor in who gets the job."

Today's settlement stems from an OFCCP review of Great Plain Coca-Cola Bottling's hiring practices over a two-year period beginning in June 2007. Investigators found that female applicants were much less likely to be hired than similarly-situated male applicants and determined that the company had violated Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sex when making employment decisions.

In addition to the financial remedies, the company will make job offers to 116 of the original class members as positions become available. The company has also already made necessary changes to the policies, practices and procedures it uses to recruit, track and hire applicants for these positions.

Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling has been an operating unit of Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Refreshments since 2012. At the time of OFCCP's review, the Oklahoma City establishment was one of eight bottling facilities that comprised the then privately held Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling Co.

Source: DOL

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

Puerto Rico construction contractor settles sexual harassment and discrimination case with DOL

Constructora Santiago to pay $40,000 to three female victims

 
Constructora Santiago II Corp., a federal construction contractor in San Juan, Puerto Rico, will make a lump sum payment of $40,000 to three female carpenters who were sexually harassed, retaliated against and denied regular and overtime work hours comparable to those of their male counterparts. The settlement follows an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.
 
"No person — male or female — should have to put up with the degrading and inappropriate treatment these women faced just to get a paycheck," said OFCCP Director Patricia A. Shiu. "There's no excuse for that kind of behavior, and it's particularly egregious when the discrimination takes place at work sites funded by taxpayers."
 
OFCCP investigators reviewed Constructora Santiago's employment practices and determined that the company violated Executive Order 11246 by discriminating against women in compensation and by permitting sexual harassment and retaliation against employees who complained about a hostile work environment.
 
Additionally, OFCCP found that Constructora Santiago did not provide adequate restroom facilities for female employees. At times, the contractor provided no restrooms for women, and female employees were forced to relieve themselves outdoors, even in the presence of male colleagues. When a restroom was available, it was not separate from the men's restroom and was not clean. Investigators also found that female workers were subjected to unwelcome, sexually charged comments, teasing, jokes and pressure to go out on dates. The conciliation agreement entered into by Constructora Santiago and OFCCP resolves these and numerous other legal violations at the company's construction work sites across Puerto Rico.
 
Under the terms of the conciliation agreement, the construction company will pay $40,000 to the three female carpenters, provide adequate toilet and changing facilities for them and develop anti-harassment policies. Constructora Santiago has also agreed to undertake extensive self-monitoring measures and training to ensure that its employment practices fully comply with Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
 
Constructora Santiago has built more than $900 million worth of highways and bridges in Puerto Rico, as well as commercial and industrial structures. In January 2012, when OFCCP's review began, the company held a federally assisted contract worth more than $10 million with the Puerto Rico Highway and Transportation Authority.
 
In addition to Executive Order 11246, OFCCP enforces Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974. These three laws require those who do business with the federal government, both contractors and subcontractors, must follow the fair and reasonable standard that they not discriminate in employment on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, national origin, disability or status as a protected veteran. For more information, visit http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/.

Source: US DOL
 

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

Spokane home care operator settles US Labor Department charges of discrimination against male job seekers

Company will pay back wages and interest to 77 male job applicants, reform hiring practices

 

The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs announced today that it has entered into a conciliation agreement to resolve allegations of sex discrimination by federal contractor, ResCare HomeCare Spokane. OFCCP investigators determined that ResCare's selection process violated Executive Order 11246 because it led to systemic hiring discrimination affecting men who applied for in-home care positions between June 2009 and May 2010. The investigation concluded that 77 male job applicants were denied full consideration during the hiring process.

 

"When we tell our daughters that there are no limits to what jobs they can pursue, we should be mindful that those same aspirations apply to our sons," said OFCCP Director Patricia A. Shiu. "Outdated stereotypes about women being better suited to caregiving jobs than men perpetuate unlawful and unfair sex discrimination. At OFCCP, we are committed to combating sex stereotyping whenever it gets in the way of equal employment opportunities for qualified workers."

 

Though ResCare officials asserted that most of their clients are women and requested female caregivers, the company had no evidence to support this. An overwhelming majority of client care plans contained no gender preference, and when OFCCP contacted a sample of these clients to ask whether they had a gender preference for their caregiver, nearly half of the female clients indicated that they had no gender preference.

 

Under the terms of the agreement, the company will pay a total of $92,059 in back pay and interest to 77 rejected male applicants. ResCare has also agreed to hire eight members of the affected class as in-home care positions become available. Additionally, the federal contractor agreed to immediately correct any discriminatory practices and undertake extensive self-monitoring measures to ensure that all compensation practices fully comply with the law.

 

ResCare provides homecare services and in-home senior care, including nursing, therapy, personal care, Alzheimer and dementia care, homemaking, companionship and other services. The Spokane facility is a part of ResCare Inc., based in Louisville, Ky., and it holds approximately $100 million in contracts with the Labor Department's Employment and Training Administration to operate 15 Job Corps centers across the country and is the program's second largest center operator in the nation.

 

In addition to Executive Order 11246, OFCCP enforces Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974. These three laws require those who do business with the federal government, both contractors and subcontractors, to follow the fair and reasonable standard that they not discriminate in employment on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, national origin, disability or status as a protected veteran. For more information, please call OFCCP's toll-free helpline at 800-397-6251 or visit http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/.

 

Source: DOL

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

 

Closing the Enforcement Gap, So We Can Close the Pay Gap

by Patricia Shiu 
 
When I arrived at the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs in the fall of 2009, I made improving our efforts to eliminate pay discrimination one of my primary goals. The first step has been to close gaps in our enforcement practices and ensure that we protect workers to the fullest extent of the law.

On Tuesday, I announced an important milestone in closing those gaps, which is effective today. We are rescinding two enforcement guidance documents on pay discrimination from 2006 known as the “Compensation Standards” and “Voluntary Guidelines” because they limited OFCCP’s ability to conduct full investigations and use every enforcement tool at its disposal to combat pay discrimination. We are also aligning OFCCP’s analysis of pay discrimination with the principles used to enforce the main federal law against employment discrimination: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from discriminating against any individual because of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. We are guided by these principles in all other areas where OFCCP reviews contractor compliance under Executive Order 11246 (such as hiring, promotion or termination).

I also announced new guidance for employers and other interested stakeholders, as well the procedures, analysis and protocols OFCCP will use when conducting compensation discrimination investigations going forward.

Equal pay for women is a critical issue for workers and their families, and a cornerstone of OFCCP’s equal employment enforcement activities. Pay discrimination can be relatively easy to identify, like a clear pattern of paying women less than men in the same job despite being just as qualified. But it can also be complex, like a practice of discriminating against African-American sales workers in handing out territory assignments, so no matter how well they perform they don’t have equal opportunity when it comes to pay. Until today, the existing rules hampered our efforts to take this kind of nuanced approach.

Under the 2006 guidance, OFCCP investigators were forced to apply a narrowly defined, cookie-cutter approach to evaluating contractor pay practices. Investigators looked at each case the same way, regardless of the industry, types of jobs or pay practices. These restrictions prevented us from detecting evidence of illegal pay discrimination. They also conflicted with the basic principles of Title VII. OFCCP has now lifted these arbitrary barriers, bringing our enforcement approach in line with how courts and other federal agencies apply Title VII.

In taking this step, I am committed to facilitating success for federal contractors and subcontractors. In our Notice of Rescission and in a companion Compensation Directive released Tuesday, we are improving and clarifying OFCCP’s compensation investigation procedures and protocols. This responds directly to what I heard from the contractor community. They asked, quite reasonably, that if we rescinded the old guidance, we also provide clarity on how we would evaluate their compliance.

We also created a new resource page on our website, where contractors can find new compliance assistance materials. We will continue to update and expand this resource page going forward. We hope contractors will use this information to review their own policies and practices, and improve voluntary compliance.

Since I arrived, OFCCP has closed more than 70 compliance evaluations with financial settlements remedying pay discrimination on the bases of gender and race. Through those efforts, OFCCP recovered more than $2.3 million in back pay and salary adjustments for more than 800 workers. But we can do more – much more.

The pay gap costs individual women thousands of dollars in lost pay each year – and hundreds of thousands across their working lifetimes. Our new guidance closes an enforcement gap that has prevented us from doing all we can to help workers get paid fairly without discrimination. And it advances our efforts toward closing the pay gap once and for all.

Patricia Shiu is the director of the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

US Labor Department rescinds restrictions on investigating pay discrimination

The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that its Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs is rescinding two enforcement guidance documents on pay discrimination originally issued in 2006, commonly known as the "Compensation Standards" and "Voluntary Guidelines. "This action, to be effective Feb. 28, is intended to protect workers and strengthen OFCCP's ability to identify and remedy different forms of pay discrimination. It will enable OFCCP to conduct investigations of contractor pay practices consistent with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"A strong American middle class hinges on ensuring equal pay," said acting Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris. "As President Obama has made clear, everyone – including the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters among us – must be paid fairly and without discrimination. These new standards will strengthen our ability to ensure that women and men are fully protected under our nation's laws."

The notice of final rescission withdrawing these two documents also includes new guidance for employers and other interested stakeholders setting forth the procedures, analysis and protocols OFCCP will utilize going forward when conducting compensation discrimination investigations. OFCCP will supplement the guidance with frequently asked questions, technical assistance, webinars, and other resources and materials to ensure that contractors have ample information about how to comply with the law.

"Today, we are lifting arbitrary barriers that have prevented our investigators from finding and combating illegal pay discrimination," said OFCCP Director Patricia A. Shiu, a member of the President's National Equal Pay Task Force. "At the same time, we are providing clear guidance for contractors to facilitate their success when it comes to providing equal opportunity to all of their workers."

The new approach described in the notice will enable OFCCP investigators to better examine practices and available evidence to uncover discrimination and evaluate contractor compliance with Executive Order 11246. That longstanding executive order requires federal contractors to comply with antidiscrimination obligations, including prohibitions against pay discrimination. Prior to this action, OFCCP was constrained by a methodology adopted in 2006 that made it harder for the agency to exercise its full legal authority because it required use of the same narrow formula to review all contractor pay practices, regardless of the industry, types of jobs, issues presented or available data. Now, OFCCP will be using its legal authority to hold contractors to the same legal standards – enshrined in Title VII, the landmark civil rights law – that courts and other federal agencies already apply to these businesses to prohibit job discrimination.

For more information, including copies of the notice of final rescission and supporting materials, visit click here.

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

DOL sex discrimination case settled; company to pay back wages

Source: United States Department of Labor

Clougherty Packing Co., a federal contractor and subsidiary of Hormel Food Corp., has settled allegations of systemic hiring discrimination against female job applicants following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.

Compliance officers reviewing Clougherty's hiring practices determined that, between 2007 and 2009, the company violated Executive Order 11246 by using a hiring process that discriminated against women — the majority of whom are Latinas — who applied for laborer positions at the company's meat-packing plant in Los Angeles. Under the terms of its conciliation agreement with OFCCP, Clougherty will pay $439,538 in back wages, including interest, to 1,988 qualified female job applicants rejected for these entry-level positions. Clougherty also will make 700 job offers to affected women as positions become available. Furthermore, the company has agreed to undertake extensive self-monitoring measures to ensure that all of its hiring practices fully comply with the law.

To read more, click here.

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.