Men Only Gender Discrimination

Attorneys with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (”EEOC”) announced in a July 9, 2009 Press Release that a national employment agency chain has agreed to pay $250,000.00 to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit brought by the federal agency.  According to the EEOC Press Release, the staffing company allegedly subjected a class of female employees in its Worcester, Massachusetts facility to unlawful job segregation on the basis of sex and then retaliated against one woman for complaining about it.  See, http://www.eeoc.gov/press/7-9-09a.html .  The EEOC said that the company restricted women to a narrow range of assignments and complied with discriminatory requests from its clients for male only temporary employees.  The Acting Chairman of the EEOC was quoted in the Press Release as saying that “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.”  In this regard, such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination in employment, and the EEOC is a federal agency responsible for enforcing the nation’s laws prohibiting employment discrimination based on race, color, gender (including sexual harassment and pregnancy), religion, national origin, age, disability and retaliation. 

Whether job assignment segregation based on sex or gender occurs in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio or elsewhere, victims of employment related sex discrimination may contact the EEOC and an attorney to determine if an employment discrimination lawsuit may ultimately be appropriate under the particular facts and circumstances of the potential workplace sex segregation claim.