Another court upholds the employer's right to discover information about the EEOC's own hiring policies

Lexology
Littler Mendelson

Rod Fliegel and Jennifer L. Mora

USA   

August 29 2012

 

In April 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued its updated enforcement guidance concerning how, in the EEOC's view, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) restricts an employer's discretion to consider criminal records relative to employment decisions.¹ Even before April 2012, however, the EEOC sued certain employers for allegedly violating Title VII by relying on criminal records, including Freeman, a nationwide convention, exhibition and corporate events marketing company.² As discussed below, Freeman's recent success in Maryland in overcoming the EEOC's objections to revealing details about the EEOC's own hiring policies builds on a similar discovery order obtained by Kaplan Higher Education Corporation (Kaplan) in its battle with the EEOC in Ohio over Kaplan's use of credit history information for employment decisions. These successes have strategic importance to employers who are assessing how to react to the EEOC's vigorous efforts to regulate background checks.³ The importance of a well-reasoned strategy is highlighted by the EEOC's recent $3.13 million settlement with a nationwide beverage company in a dispute concerning criminal records.⁴   

 

 

 

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