EEOC focuses on emerging equality issues

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will intensify its focus on emerging issues such as use of credit checks, forced labor, and employment discrimination against caregivers, an official of the US agency told members of Mercer’s Workforce Opportunity Network last month. 

Regional Attorney for the Los Angeles District Anna Park explained that the EEOC’s mistrust of using credit checks to make hiring decisions is based on the disparate impact the practice has on minorities, particularly African-Americans, for whom the rate of bad credit is 21% higher than for whites.  The disparity may be due in part to lending discrimination and to circumstances unrelated to how responsible the individual is, such as medical problems or family breakups.  Accordingly, the EEOC will expect that companies using credit checks have undertaken “a meaningful study that validates that credit records bear a demonstrable relationship to successful performance.”

Another area of growing interest to the EEOC is human trafficking and forced labor.  Employers who would never directly participate in such practices may still be liable if workers hired through an employment agency are subject to abuses.  The case of EEOC v. Trans Bay Steel, for example, dealt with 48 welders brought from Thailand by an agency to work for Trans Bay Steel on the East Bay Bridge in San Francisco.  The workers came to the US with legitimate visas through a recruitment agency, but their passports were withheld and they were forced to work 14 hours a day, 6 days a week for no pay, living in poor conditions with no electricity, water, or beds.  After several workers escaped and contacted the EEOC, the commission recovered over $1 million for the workers from Trans Bay, as well as housing stipends, training, guaranteed wages, and monitoring and reporting.

Park also noted that the increased participation of women in the workforce has resulted in more discrimination against working parents and people with caregiver responsibilities.  It is illegal under the ADA to discriminate based on stereotypes about an employee’s ability to performer his or her job duties and care for a person with a disability.  With nearly a third of families having at least one family member with a disability, Park encourages employers to educate workers about their rights and responsibilities and to avoid inquiries about marital, parental or caregiver status.

The next meeting of the Workforce Opportunity Network will be July 13-14.  Qualified U.S. diversity and inclusion and/or EEO practitioners can request a guest invitation and more information from Bonnie Arrix.