Compliance Corner [October 2024]
Your tax dollars at work: Compliance agencies are as active as ever – if not more so. Following are summaries of federal agency activities in October 2024:
Here is what is new in October
Summary of EEOC Suits and Settlements
Beyond EEOC
Additional EEOC Lawsuit
Number of DOL Suits and Settlements
2025 Federal Contractor Minimum Wage Rates Set
Safeguarding Benefits Data
Unfortunate Irony
Ensure Accuracy of Background Checks
What Is NOT a Reasonable Accommodation Under the ADA?
First Cases Brought under Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA)
Summary of EEOC Suits and Settlements
Lawsuits
Workplace Harassment: Lawsuits against 9 employers in 3 different states
Disability Discrimination: Lawsuits against 5 employers in 3 different states
Pregnancy Discrimination: Lawsuits against 2 employers in 2 different states
Lawsuit against one company in Illinois for sexual harassment, disability discrimination and retaliation.
Settlements
Florida: Conciliation of charge brought under Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
North Carolina: $80,000 against company for sexual harassment and retaliation
Washington State: $250,000 against one company for sexual harassment and Settlement of gender-based pay discrimination charge against another.
Beyond EEOC
The HHS Office of Civil Rights assessed a $115,200 penalty against a multi-state provider of emergency services for failing to provide requested information to a patient within the allotted timeframe. That timeframe is 30 days, with a possible 30-day extension: the company finally provided the information after 4 requests and a delay of 370 days.
Texas has filed suit against GM and OnStar for not disclosing their harvesting of personal data from car systems and then selling those data.
In line with the above, separate articles have been published about the amount of personal data that car systems – especially coupled with cell phones – obtain from owners and relay back to the manufacturers.
Additional EEOC Lawsuit
A service company employee was denied permission to work at home after she had a stroke, even though her work was taking service calls and electronically entering them into a database system. They also discontinued permission to work from home on days (2 or 3 per week) on which she had medical appointments, and finally terminated her for absenteeism. It appears that she was still able to perform the essential functions of the job, so the company may well be liable for violating the ADA.
Number of DOL Suits and Settlements
FLSA: 11 suits/settlements brought in 9 states and Puerto Rico
OSHA: 4 actions in 4 states
Davis-Bacon Act: 2 actions in 2 states
Executive Order 11246: 2 actions in 2 states
H2A Visa Program: 2 actions in 2 states
ERISA: 2 actions in 2 states
2025 Federal Contractor Minimum Wage Rates Set
Effective January 1, 2025, the minimum wage for most employees working on or in connection with a qualifying federal contract is set to rise from $17.20 per hour to $17.75 per hour. Note that this rate applies to BOTH non-tipped AND tipped workers. There will no longer be a separate, lower rate for tipped employees.
Safeguarding Benefits Data
The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), part of the DOL, has re-stated that the cybersecurity guidance they issued in 2021 applies to all benefit plans that are covered by ERISA. The EBSA website is https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa, and the “Employers and Advisers” section is where the most relevant information can be found.
Unfortunate Irony
The Society for Human Resource Management is being sued for race discrimination in a termination case. Facts are in dispute, but a judge has determined that the case should go to trial, proving that it is critical to handle HR matters in an objective, evidence-based manner for all employers.
Ensure Accuracy of Background Checks
Several cases have occurred where inaccurate background checks have cost applicants their potential jobs. Both TransUnion and ADP have had cases of erroneous background checks and have had to settle with the plaintiffs. In each case, the report was eventually found to have been on the wrong person – who, in 2 cases, had been convicted of serious crimes. The TransUnion case was egregious because the candidate’s name did not even match the subject of the investigation, but TransUnion refused to respond to the plaintiff’s calls. (They are now responding, presumably…)
What Is NOT a Reasonable Accommodation Under the ADA?
In September, the EEOC brought three cases under the Act, one each in Kentucky, Alabama and Oklahoma. In each case, the employer blatantly ignored medical instructions from the plaintiffs’ doctors, failed to accommodate in a variety of ways, and even threatened the employee with termination for requesting accommodation, leading to either the resignation or the termination of the plaintiff.
EEOC also settled a case with another Oklahoma employer that resulted in the following: (1) the employer is to pay $47,480.00 in damages to the former employee, (2) they must “appoint an EEO coordinator, (3) revise their employment policies to include reasonable accommodations under the
PWFA, (4) provide relevant training to management and non-management employees, and (5) provide quarterly reports on requests for accommodation and complaints of discrimination to the EEOC.”
In each case, the employer failed to engage in an interactive process with the employee, and for the most part, they ignored the employee’s medical restrictions. EEOC is serious about the PWFA, and employers are advised to be serious as well.