Matters Management

INDIANAPOLIS – Lilly USA, LLC, a pharmaceutical corporation based in Indianapolis, Indiana, violated federal law by intentionally failing to hire older workers based on their age for pharmaceutical sales representative positions from April 2017 to 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today. According to the EEOC’s suit, in 2017, Lilly’s senior vice president for human resources and diversity recognized at a Leadership Town Hall that Lilly’s workforce was composed of older workers. The senior vice president then announced goals for “Early Career” hiring to add more millennials to Lilly’s workforce. Thereafter, Lilly changed its hiring preferences and intentionally under-hired older candidates for sales representative positions in favor of younger candidates based on their age.

The Department's policies reaffirm DOL's commitment to fair treatment of, and equal opportunity for, all people. Policies prohibiting discrimination based on transgender status, gender identity, or gender expression create the reasonable expectation of an environment where all employees and applicants for employment are evaluated by their performance, rather than by their gender identity or expression or others' perceptions thereof.

NEW YORK – United Airlines will pay $305,000 to a Buddhist pilot and will provide other relief to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, the pilot was diagnosed with alcohol dependency and lost the medical certificate issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). One of the requirements of United’s HIMS program for its pilots with substance abuse problems who want to obtain new medical certificates from the FAA is that pilots regularly attend Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The pilot, who is Buddhist, objected to the religious content of AA and sought to substitute regular attendance at a Buddhism-based peer support group. United refused to accommodate his religious objection and, as a result, the pilot was unable to obtain a new FAA medical certificate permitting him to fly again, the agency charged.

The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a settlement agreement with Walter J. Willoughby Jr., M.D., Ltd. (Willoughby Ltd.), a medical practice located in Las Vegas, Nevada. The settlement resolves the department’s determination that Willoughby Ltd. violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by terminating a longstanding employee based on her Mexican-American national origin.

“Firing an employee because of her national origin runs counter to our nation’s ideals,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “All workers have a right to be treated fairly by their employers. The Civil Rights Division is committed to addressing unlawful discrimination in all types of workplaces.”

The department’s investigation determined that Willoughby Ltd. unlawfully fired a high-performing Mexican-American employee based on her coworkers’ discriminatory bias. Specifically, after subjecting the employee to months of derogatory comments and jokes based on her Mexican heritage, the coworkers fabricated a false accusation against the employee that played into national origin stereotypes to oust her from the workplace. In March 2020, the medical practice credited the coworkers’ accusations without investigating them and agreed to terminate the employee on that basis. The INA’s anti-discrimination provision prohibits employers with four to fourteen employees from terminating workers based on their national origin. Employers with fifteen or more employees are prohibited from engaging in such discrimination by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

CLEVELAND – The United Labor Agency (ULA), a Cleveland-based non-profit that focuses on workforce development, violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by discriminating against an employee based on her disability, breast cancer, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleged in a suit filed today. The ULA denied the employee a reasonable accommodation of temporary remote work and subjected her to intolerable work conditions that resulted in her discharge, the EEOC charged.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, after ULA required its employees to return to in-person work after a long period of COVID-related telework, it denied the employee’s ADA accommodation request to remain on telework for several months while she was undergoing radiation treatments and was immunosuppressed. After being required to return to the office, the employee was repeatedly left off staff emails notifying personnel of COVID-19 exposures, despite her requests to be notified. The employee, who had been with ULA for nearly a decade, was finally forced to resign because of the risk to her health, the EEOC alleged.

MILWAUKEE – Pensec, Inc., a Wisconsin corporation which operates nine McDonald’s fast food restaurants, will pay $31,137 and furnish other relief to resolve a race discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today. According to EEOC’s lawsuit, Pensec failed or refused to hire Black applicants because of their race. Unsuccessful black applicants at the location were told the store manager, “Don’t like n-----s,” and that the store needed “Spanish people.” That location, on West Washington Street in Milwaukee, also had a statistically significant shortfall in the hiring of black employees based on census data for the area. In addition to the monetary relief, the consent decree entered by U.S. District Court Judge J.P. Stadtmueller prohibits the company from discriminating in the future; requires the company to make best efforts to reach hiring goals for black employees; and mandates Pensec provide training on Title VII to its employees and make regular reports to the EEOC regarding its compliance with the decree.