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October 9, 2024
Last month, we told you about a recent settlement that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) secured from a staffing agency based on allegations that the agency engaged in sex discrimination when it complied with clients’ discriminatory requests to fill job vacancies with only male workers.
Last week, the EEOC reported a similar settlement. ACARE HHC, Inc., doing business as Four Seasons Licensed Home Health Care Agency, a Brooklyn-based company that supplies home health aides, will pay $400,000 and furnish other relief to settle a race and national origin discrimination lawsuit.
In its lawsuit, the EEOC alleged that, since at least June 2020, Four Seasons has violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by engaging in a pattern or practice of terminating the assignments of Black and Hispanic home health aides (HHAs) to accommodate the preferences of clients or clients’ families.
Specifically, the EEOC alleged that Four Seasons does not inform clients that they cannot request an HHA of a particular race or national origin and Four Seasons does not train its coordinators on the illegality of assigning or reassigning an HHA of a particular racial or ethnic background at a client’s request. The EEOC further alleged that Four Seasons’ clients or their family members express preferences for HHAs of a particular race or national origin or they request an HHA of a race different than the one assigned to care for them or their family member. Most such requests are for an HHA who is not Black of Hispanic. Four Seasons’ coordinators accommodate these requests when an HHA of a different race is available. Consequently, Black and Hispanic HHAs are removed from their assignments, sometimes go days or weeks without another assignment, and sometimes never receive a new assignment and are terminated.
In its Answer, Four Seasons alleged, among other things, that it facilitates requests for an HHA change only if the clients’ or family members’ concern relates to patient safety or language barriers.
If the EEOC’s allegations were proven, Four Seasons’ conduct violates Title VII, which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of race and national origin, including in job assignments based on biased client preference.
The lawsuit settled with a three-year consent decree that provides $400,000 in monetary relief to a class of HHAs affected by Four Seasons’ practices. The consent decree also includes non-monetary relief, including an injunction prohibiting Four Seasons from making HHA assignments based on clients’ race- and/or national origin-based preferences; updates to Four Seasons’ internal policies, including tracking HHA reassignments and handling complaints of race- or national origin-based discriminatory reassignment; mandatory training for management employees about Title VII; and certain monitoring by and reporting to the EEOC.
The case is EEOC v. ACARE HHC d/b/a Four Seasons Licensed Home Health Care, 23-cv-5760 (E.D.N.Y).
Employers: As EEOC Regional Attorney Kimberly A. Cruz said about this case, you “cannot make job assignment decisions based on a client’s preference for a worker of a particular race or national origin. It is imperative for employers to have policies, training, and other safeguards in place that help prevent a client’s prejudices from influencing their employment decisions.”
Special thanks to Nella Venella, our paralegal, for her contributions to this article.
This article is designed to provide one perspective regarding recent legal developments, and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Always consult an attorney with specific legal issues.
