Dive Brief:
- A staffing firm that allegedly didn’t hire women for construction jobs, Black workers in certain areas or individuals over 40 has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a discrimination lawsuit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to a Jan. 16 news release.
- A recruiter at Coon Rapids, Minnesota-based TKO Construction Services quit the company after its president confirmed the policies to her and said they were in place to meet client requests. Under the terms of the settlement, TKO will pay the employee who quit as well as individuals who were discriminated against.
- Additionally, the firm will implement hiring practices to give women, Black workers and individuals over 40 equal employment opportunities and will identify and report clients who make discriminatory requests for employees, according to EEOC.
Dive Insight:
Hiring laws prohibit employers from discriminating against applicants due to protected characteristics, including sex, race and age.
“Employers cannot refuse to hire or assign individuals for employment based on sex, race or age because their clients tell them to engage in discrimination,” Gregory Gochanour, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Chicago District, said in the release.
Continued underrepresentation of women and workers of color in construction is an area of particular concern for the EEOC, the release said. EEOC has singled out the sector, which has a long-standing White-guys only reputation, as one of particular concern due to the egregious nature of many complaints.
However, the agency’s approach to the sector may change during President Donald Trump’s second term. Tuesday, EEOC announced Trump had appointed Republican EEOC Commissioner Andrea Lucas as acting chair. In a statement, Lucas said her priorities would include rooting out “DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination” and protecting American workers from “anti-American national origin discrimination.”
“I look forward to restoring evenhanded enforcement of employment civil rights laws for all Americans,” Lucas said.
TKO Construction Services, which provides temporary employees for commercial, residential, restoration, heavy industrial and energy construction companies, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
