A New York home healthcare company violated federal law by removing aides from their work assignments due to their race and national origin to accommodate client preferences, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed July 31.
According to the lawsuit, the company routinely would accede to racial preferences of patients in making home health aide assignments, including by removing Black and Hispanic home health aides based on clients’ race and national origin-based requests. Those aides would be transferred to a new assignment or, if no other assignment were available, lose their employment completely.
Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of race and national origin.
The EEOC filed suit in the US District Court for Eastern District of New York, after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through the agency’s conciliation process. The EEOC seeks compensatory damages and punitive damages for the affected employees, and injunctive relief to remedy and prevent future discrimination based on employees’ race and national origin.
“Making work assignment decisions based on an employee’s race or national origin is against the law, including when these decisions are grounded in preferences of the employer’s clients,” said Jeffrey Burstein, regional attorney for the EEOC’s New York District Office.
Compliance Perspective
Issue
Race discrimination involves treating someone (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because he/she is of a certain race or because of personal characteristics associated with race (such as hair texture, skin color, or certain facial features). National origin discrimination involves treating people (applicants or employees) unfavorably because they are from a particular country or part of the world, because of ethnicity or accent, or because they appear to be of a certain ethnic background (even if they are not). The law forbids discrimination when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, and any other term or condition of employment.
Discussion Points
- Review policies and procedures for prevention of any type of discrimination, including in hiring practices, wage, or benefit assignment.
- Train staff about their right to be free from discrimination in the workplace and that all staff must comply with the non-harassment non-discrimination policy. Teach staff to report any concerns of discrimination to their immediate supervisor or through the facility’s hotline, whether it happens to them personally or if they observe it happening to others.
- Periodically audit employees to determine if they have ever been discriminated against because of their race or national origin. Additionally, periodically review potential employees’ application files to ensure that discrimination in the hiring process did not occur during the selection of applicants because of race or national origin.
*This news alert has been prepared by Med-Net Concepts, LLC for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal advice.*
