The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Palm Management Corporation, which manages The Palm Restaurants, announced a settlement ending a nationwide investigation focusing on past recruitment and hiring practices.

The pre-litigation agreement was voluntarily entered into by The Palm and obtained through the EEOC's conciliation process. The terms of the agreement include mandatory equal employment opportunity training for managers and employees and the establishment of a class fund in the amount of $500,000.

The EEOC's investigation was based on allegations that The Palm violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to recruit and hire women into waiter positions.

"This a prime example of how employers should work cooperatively with the EEOC as a means of effectively resolving discrimination charges to the satisfaction of all involved parties," says Olophius Perry, director of EEOC's Los Angeles district office. "The Palm has shown it is committed to equal employment opportunity for women. Once made aware of inconsistencies that existed in its recruitment and hiring effort, The Palm proactively created a sophisticated, centralized tracking system that should serve as a 'best practices' model for other businesses."

Fred Thimm, Palm president and chief operating officer, said the investigation led to changes in the way the restaurants recruit and hire servers.

"We have achieved an outcome which has enhanced our methods of recruitment to ensure a more diverse pool of applicants, and as a result, a more diverse workforce," says Thimm. "As a business that experienced rapid growth, we learned that our traditional method of recruiting only through employee referrals was not the best way in terms of ensuring gender diversity."