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.
In the lawsuit, the EEOC alleged that 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.
“This settlement is a stark reminder to businesses: A customer’s preference to be staffed or served only by workers of a particular gender is never an excuse to engage in illegal sex discrimination,” said EEOC Acting Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru.
In settling the lawsuit, the company admitted no wrongdoing.
“We commend Preferred for working cooperatively with us to reach this agreement,” said EEOC New York District Director Spencer H. Lewis. “The resolution of this lawsuit represents substantial progress in the expansion of job opportunities for women in the temporary labor industry.”
The company agreed to settle the lawsuit after selling its entire temporary day labor business to another employment agency.
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