ACARE HHC, Inc., doing business as Four Seasons Licensed Home Health Care Agency, a Brooklyn-based company supplying home health aides, will pay $400,000 and furnish other relief to settle a race and national origin discrimination lawsuit filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Four Seasons routinely acceded to patients’ racial preferences when making home health aide assignments, including removal of Black and Hispanic aides. Those aides would be transferred to a new assignment or, if no other assignment were available, lose their employment completely. Such conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of race and national origin, including in the making of job assignments based on biased client preference.
