Administaff Pays $115,000 For Religious Bias

Administaff, Inc., a nationwide company that provides full-service HR services to small and medium-size businesses, has agreed to pay $115,000 and furnish substantial remedial relief to settle a religious harassment lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in Baltimore.

According to the EEOC’s suit, Texas-based Administaff and Conn-x, LLC, a Florida-based cable service provider, violated federal law by engaging in religious discrimination against two employees at Conn-x’s Edgewood office. The agency alleged that two Conn-x employees, who are brothers, were called “dirty Jew[s],” “dumb Jew[s],”and other anti-Semitic slurs by managers and coworkers.

The EEOC alleged that the harassment, which began in September 2005, continued for a couple of years and included the defacing of one employee’s work vehicle with a swastika. One of the employees was also physically harassed when he was forced into a trash bin for the amusement of managers, who observed the incident on a surveillance camera and called it “throw the Jew in the dumpster.” The EEOC’s lawsuit against Conn-x remains unresolved.

In addition to the monetary relief for the two employees, the consent decree settling the lawsuit bars Administaff from engaging in harassment on the basis of religion or retaliating against employees who complain about it. The company agreed to revise its policy against harassment and retaliation, provide training on antidiscrimination laws to its managers, and post notices stating its commitment to maintaining an environment free of religious harassment and retaliation. EEOC v. Adminstaff, Inc. , Case No. 1:09-CV-02881-BEL, DC MD.

Olsten to pay $75,000 to settle disability claims

On March 18, 2010, Olsten Staffing Services Corp., a nationwide temporary employment agency based in Melville, New York, agreed to pay $75,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC in Madison, Wisconsin. The agency alleged that Olsten violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by refusing to refer a deaf job applicant for temporary employment as a production worker for an employer in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

The EEOC alleged that a staffing specialist at Olsten’s La Crosse office twice refused to refer the applicant for employment because he is deaf, even though he met all of the actual qualifications for the job. According to the EEOC, company e-mails showed that Olsten’s staffing specialists had flagged the applicant’s disability as a “concern.” When the applicant later asked the staffing specialist why he didn’t get the job, the Olsten employee falsely attributed the decision to concerns raised by the employer when it hadn’t expressed any such concerns. Hearing ability wasn’t a requirement at the food production job, and in fact, workplace noise required a number of employees to wear ear protection that prevented them from hearing while working.

The case was resolved by a two-year consent decree that requires Olsten to pay lost wages of $5,000 and damages of $70,000 to the applicant. The decree also contains an injunction prohibiting the La Crosse office from engaging in any further discrimination on the basis of disability and requires Olsten to provide ADA training to its employees and report any further complaints of discrimination to the EEOC for the next two years. EEOC v. Olsten Staffing Services Corp. , Case No. 98-CV-565 (DC WIS).

Celestica Corporation settles EEOC disability suit

On April 8, 2010, Celestica, Inc., a Canadian electronics company, agreed to pay $102,100 and provide other relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC. In its suit, the agency alleged that Celestica willfully ignored a request for reasonable accommodation under the ADA.

An employee hired through a placement agency worked inside a 400,000-square- foot warehouse operated by Celestica. The employee, who suffers from lupus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cardiomyopathy, asked to use her own electric wheelchair to get to her desk inside the warehouse from a handicapped parking space close to the side entrance. Although the placement agency allowed use of the wheelchair, Celestica ignored the employee’s requests. She continued working for a few months without accommodation, but ultimately quit.

In addition to providing monetary relief, the two-year consent decree settling the suit prohibits Celestica from further refusing or ignoring any reasonable accommodation requests from disabled individuals. The company must also issue its policy on ADA reasonable accommodations to all employees in the United States, train its site managers and HR managers on reasonable accommodations, have the trainer administer a test after the training and review the test results with trainees, report requests for reasonable accommodations to the EEOC, and post notices on the settlement and the ADA around the facility. EEOC v. Celestica, Inc. , Case No. 3:09-0813 (DC TN).