News & Information

 

Visit us at the new www.wklawbusiness.com for all legal, business and health care products and services from Wolters Kluwer Law & Business

LABOR & EMPLOYMENT LAW — 6/16/08

Home care agency settles suit for refusing to hire black applicant, firing white whistleblower

A home health care agency in Steeleville, Illinois will pay $50,000 to settle a race bias and reprisal lawsuit brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced June 10, 2008. The federal agency claimed that Clarice's Home Care Service, Inc unlawfully denied a job to a black applicant because of race and fired a case coordinator who objected to the employer's refusal to hire the African-American applicant. Clarice's Home Care Service, Inc refused to hire Karen Collier, who is an African-American, to a home care position because the only available assignments were in the homes of white clients, the EEOC alleged in a lawsuit filed in US District Court in East St. Louis (No 3:07-CV-00601).

Clarice's Home Care identified Collier as an African-American by writing "Black" across the top of her application, the EEOC said. The employer also fired Clara Creason, its case coordinator, because she informed Collier that she had not been hired because she was black and showed Collier her application with the notation, according to the federal agency.

The settlement, in addition to the monetary relief, requires equal employment opportunity training of all managers and prohibits consideration of the race of applicants and employees in hiring decisions and job assignments.

"It is unlawful for an employer to consider the racial preference of a client for an employee of a particular race, even when that employee will be working closely with the client," said James R. Neely, Jr., district director of the EEOC's St. Louis district office. "One fundamental purpose of Title VII is to eradicate racial bias and stereotyping from employment decisions, not only where the source of that bias is the employer, but also where the source is the customer. It is also unlawful to retaliate against employees who challenge an employer's decision which violates the law. The effective enforcement of the law depends upon people who are aware of violations coming forward to expose them."

For more information on this and other topics, consult CCH Employment Practices Guide or CCH Labor Relations.

Visit our News Library to read more news stories.