New York Paralegal Blog

PHOENIX – High-Tech Institute, Inc., doing business as Anthem College Online, will pay $260,000 as part of a settlement of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. In its suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona (Civil Action No.CV-09-2041-ROS), the EEOC charged that Anthem College subjected female employees to repeated sexual harassment by supervisors. According to the EEOC, six female admissions representatives working at the Phoenix, Ariz., location were frequently sexually harassed by three supervisors. The EEOC’s allegations included that the supervisors engaged in unwanted sexual touching and comments, writing sexually suggestive e-mails and soliciting sex from employees during unwelcome visits to the employees’ homes in the early morning hours. Some of this abusive behavior was witnessed by other Anthem College employees, the EEOC said. The EEOC maintained that Anthem ...

Pinnacle Pharmacy Failed to Protect Female Employees from Harasser, Federal Agency Charged MADISON, Wis. – Omnicare, Inc., doing business as Pinnacle Pharmacy, violated federal law by subjecting a class of women to a sexually hostile work environment in its La Crosse, Wis., location, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today. According to the EEOC’s suit, (EEOC v. Omnicare, Inc. d/b/a Pinnacle Pharmacy, Case No. 10-cv-364), filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, the La Crosse pharmacy manager engaged in repeated, egregious acts of sexual harassment toward female employees, such as unwelcome touching that included approaching female employees from behind and grinding his crotch on them, and making sexually explicit and demeaning comments to female employees.

Federal Court Approves Largest Monetary Amount Ever in Single EEOC ADA Suit; Employees Allegedly Terminated Based on Inflexible Workers’ Compensation Leave Exhaustion Policy CHICAGO – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced the entry of a record-setting consent decree resolving a class lawsuit against Sears, Roebuck and Co. (Sears) under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) for $6.2 million and significant remedial relief. The consent decree, approved this morning by Federal District Judge Wayne Andersen, represents the largest ADA settlement in a single lawsuit in EEOC history. The EEOC’s suit alleged that Sears maintained an inflexible workers’ compensation leave exhaustion policy and terminated employees instead of providing them with reasonable accommodations for their disabilities, in violation of the ADA.

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it filed today that Professional Building Systems of North Carolina, LLC, violated federal law by subjecting African American employees to a racially hostile work environment. Professional Building Systems builds custom modular homes in two locations including at its facilities in Middleburg, Pa., and Mount Gilead, N.C., where the racial harassment occurred. According to the EEOC’s complaint, from around July 2005 to around early 2008, black employees were subjected to egregious racial harassment while employed at Professional Building Systems. African American employees were subjected to racist abuse, which included nooses and racially offensive drawings that depicted blacks and the Ku Klux Klan. Black employees were also subjected to racial slurs, including use of the racial epithet “n----r.” Most of the harassment was perpetrated by one of the managers of the Mount Gilead facility. Al...

ORANGEBURG, S.C. – Alternative Staffing, Inc., a Charleston, S.C.-based temporary employment staffing firm, and Clancy & Theys, a construction company headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., violated federal law by subjecting a class of female employees to a sexually hostile work environment, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today. The EEOC’s further charged that Alternative Staffing forced three female employees out of their jobs because of their sex. Finally, the EEOC said, Clancy & Theys interfered with the equal employment opportunities of its female employees. According to the EEOC’s suit, from June 2006 through at least July 12, 2006, Shequann Singleton, Tasha Collier, Tomeka Sanders and other similarly situated female employees were subjected to sexual harassment. Singleton, Collier and Sanders were employed by Alternative Staffing and assigned to work at Clancy & Theys’ work site in Orangeburg, S.C. The sexual harassme...

SAN DIEGO -- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today (08/03/09) announced a class litigation settlement against Hometown Buffet, Inc., on behalf of teens and Latinas who were subjected to a sexually hostile workplace, including verbal and physical abuse, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Specifically, the EEOC alleged that Hometown Buffet failed to prevent and tolerated a pattern of ongoing sexual harassment in which male managers, supervisors, and co-workers subjected female employees to a sexually hostile workplace, including groping, hugging, kissing, sexual advances, and stalking employees outside the workplace. One female victim was allegedly raped by a male co-worker. The EEOC further alleged that due to the female employees’ young age and/or lack of English proficiency, a breakdown in the company’s complaint process failed to adequately remedy the sexual harassment. In addition to a monetary settlement of $710,000, the two-year consent ...

National employment agency chain Preferred Labor LLC, doing business as Preferred People Staffing, has agreed to pay $250,000 to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. Preferred Labor agreed to settle the lawsuit after selling its entire temporary day labor business to another employment agency. According to the EEOC's lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Case No. 06-40190), the North Carolina-based employment agency subjected a class of female employees in its Worcester, Mass., facility to unlawful job segregation on the basis of sex and then retaliated against one woman for complaining. The EEOC said that Preferred restricted women to a narrow range of assignments and complied with discriminatory requests from its clients for male-only temporary employees. Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Law of 1964, which prohibits sex d...

The Federal Trade Commission has filed suit to block the merger of CCC Information Services Inc. and Mitchell International Inc., charging that the merger would hinder competition in the market for electronic systems used to estimate the cost of collision repairs, known as “estimatics,” and the market for software systems used to value passenger vehicles that have been totaled, known as total loss valuation (TLV) systems. The FTC’s administrative complaint alleges that the merger, which is valued at $1.4 billion, would harm insurers, repair shops and, ultimately, U.S. car owners by reducing from three to two the number of competitors in the two related businesses. “These estimating and valuation solutions are key tools in the auto insurance and collision repair industries,” said Acting Bureau of Competition Director David P. Wales. “There is no doubt that this merger would reduce competition that benefits auto insurers and auto body shops and ultimately would lead to higher prices and ...

NEW YORK – A New York-based company that refurbishes cell phones at its factory in Long Island will pay $435,000 to settle a wage discrimination and retaliation suit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced on November 3, 2008. The EEOC had charged that First Wireless Group, Inc. engaged in a pattern or practice of race and/or national origin discrimination against a class of Hispanic workers by paying them less for doing the same job as Asian employees and by firing those who complained about the unlawful pay disparity. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit (Civil Action No.03-CV-4990) filed in September 2003 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, after a group of former Hispanic employees became aware that Asian employees were being paid $1.50 to $2.00 or more per hour for performing the same work, they circulated a petition asking for equal pay. Rather than looking into the employees’ complaints, the EEOC said, Firs...

Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Kenneth Donohue, Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, announced the filing of a civil complaint against Madison Home Equities, Inc., a mortgage lender located in Carle Place, Long Island, seeking a court-ordered injunction to prevent the company from making loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (“FHA”). The complaint also seeks relief against Madison’s president, Nadine Malone. The case is pending before United States District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis. As alleged in the civil complaint, Madison participates in a federal program sponsored by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) which authorizes Madison to make mortgage loans that are insured by FHA in the event of default. As a condition of participation in the program, Madison must determine that all borrowers who receive FHA-insured mortgage loans meet HUD lending stand...

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department announced today the filing of a lawsuit against the State of Vermont and Vermont Secretary of State Deborah L. Markowitz, alleging violations of the Uniformed Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). UOCAVA is designed to ensure that uniformed military members and overseas citizens may effectively participate in federal elections. Vermont and the Secretary are responsible for collecting and reporting the number of military voters and overseas citizens who are sent ballots, return them and have them successfully cast in each federal general election. Vermont has failed to fulfill this important obligation ever since it became law in the Help America Vote Act of 2002. The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vt., seeks a declaration that Vermont has previously violated the law, and seeks an injunction against any future noncompliance. "Accurate and complete information about whether our uniformed service members and over...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Sterling Jewelers Inc., the largest specialty retail jeweler in the country, violated federal law by discriminating against a large class of female employees at stores nationwide, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charges in a systemic lawsuit filed yesterday under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. In its suit, the EEOC asserts that Sterling Jewelers pays its female retail sales employees less than male employees performing equal work and denies female employees promotional opportunities for which they are qualified. Sterling Jewelers intentionally discriminates against female retail sales employees by maintaining a system for making promotion and compensation decisions that is excessively subjective, and through which Sterling Jewelers has permitted or encouraged managers to deny female employees equal access to promotion opportunities and the same compensation paid to similarly situated male employees, the EEOC states in its suit. More...