EEOC has collected $44M so far in FY 2020

April 2020 employment law letter

Authors:

H. Juanita Beecher, Fortney & Scott, LLC

At the halfway point in fiscal year (FY) 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has collected $44.7 million in settlements, more than doubling the amount it had recovered by the same point in FY 2019. A majority of the amount is attributable to only six lawsuits. The $20.5 million recovered from Jackson National Life Insurance Co. for allegations of pay discrimination, among other claims, is the largest recovery by the agency in more than 10 years. The other five settlements include:

$6 million from Dollar General for a discriminatory criminal background check policy;
$2.65 million from Crossmark Inc. for refusing to allow disabled food demonstrators to sit for more than 10 minutes every two hours;
$2.63 million from La Cantera Resort for its English-only policy;
$2 million from Prestige Care for requiring employees to be 100 percent healed before returning to work; and
$1.23 million from Nabor Services and C&J Weil Services for allegedly harassing and retaliating against black workers.

Takeaway. In total, the EEOC has announced 85 new settlements in FY 2020, compared to only 45 at the same time last year. Although the agency has been very active in the first six months of FY 2020, it will be interesting to see if that continues through the final months of the fiscal year.

H. Juanita M. Beecher is an attorney with Fortney & Scott, LLC, in Washington, D.C. You can reach her at nbeecher@fortneyscott.com.

Continue reading your article with a HRLaws membership