Tutoring Service Agrees to Pay $365,000 to Settle EEOC Hiring Discrimination Lawsuit
On September 11, 2023, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced it had reached an agreement with three integrated companies providing English-language tutoring services to students in China to pay $365,000 and furnish other relief to settle a hiring discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC, according to a press release from the EEOC.
The EEOC lawsuit claimed the tutoring service – which hired tutors based in the United States to provide online tutoring from their homes – programmed their tutor application software to automatically reject female applicants aged 55 or older and male applicants aged 60 or older. As a result, they rejected more than 200 qualified applicants because of their age.
The alleged conduct by the tutoring service violates the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967 which prohibits employers from discriminating based on age. The EEOC – which enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination – filed the lawsuit after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
The decree from the EEOC settling the lawsuit provides $365,000 to be distributed to applicants who were automatically rejected due to age. Although the tutoring service has ceased hiring tutors in the United States, the decree also provides for significant non-monetary relief designed to prevent discrimination should the tutoring service ever resume its U.S. operations.
That relief includes extensive and continuing training for those involved in hiring tutors, issuance of a new anti-discrimination policy, and strong injunctions against discriminatory hiring based on age or sex and requesting birth dates of applicants. The EEOC will monitor compliance with these obligations if the tutoring service resumes hiring tutors in the United States.
“Everyone loses when employers engage in age discrimination,” Timothy Riera, the acting director of the EEOC’s New York District, stated in the press release. “Hundreds of applicants lost out on employment during a difficult time for job seekers.” For more information about age discrimination with applicants or employees, visit www.eeoc.gov/age-discrimination.
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