Leading Manufacturing Company to Pay $120,000 to Settle EEOC Gender and Disability Discrimination Suit

Source: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

GREENSBORO, N.C. – A Canton, Ohio-headquartered manufacturer will pay $120,000 and provide other relief to settle a sex and disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced.

In its lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, the EEOC charged in July 2007, the company denied a full-time position to part-time employee Carmen Halloran, who worked at the company’s Randleman, N.C., facility. At the time she applied for the full-time position, Halloran had worked at the Randleman facility as a part-time process associate for four years. The EEOC alleged the company refused to hire Halloran because one or more managers for the company believed that Halloran, who is the mother of a disabled child, would be unable to work full time and care for her disabled child. The EEOC alleged that although the company employed men who were the fathers of disabled children, the company failed to hire Halloran into the full-time position based on an unfounded gender stereotype that the mother of a disabled child would necessarily be the primary caregiver for the child and therefore would not be a reliable employee.

In addition to paying $120,000 in settlement of this action, the company must take other actions set forth in the two-year consent decree resolving the case, including providing anti-discrimination training to the managers, supervisors, and employees of the company’s Randleman facility. Further, the company must post a notice at its Randleman facility concerning employees’ rights under federal anti-discrimination laws and must provide periodic reports to the EEOC on its hiring practices.

“The EEOC is committed to fighting discrimination in the workplace,” said Lynette A. Barnes, regional attorney for the EEOC's Charlotte District Office. “Employers must be careful not to apply stereotypes against women based on perceptions that they must always be the primary caregivers and therefore are unreliable employees.” 

The company manufactures precision ball bearings and other friction management and power transmission products. The company employs more than 25,000 employees world-wide.

The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting discrimination in employment. Further information about the Commission is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.

To learn more about employment discrimination laws, or to protect your company from potential liability with anti-discrimination training, please contact Berkshire Associates at 800.882.8904 or email bai@berkshireassociates.com.