EEOC sues Kaplan Higher Ed for unlawful discrimination
Interesting release from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about its decision to sue Kaplan Higher Education Corporation, which operates Bauder College in Atlanta
Kaplan Higher Education Corporation, a nationwide provider of postsecondary education, engaged in a pattern or practice of unlawful discrimination by refusing to hire a class of black job applicants nationwide, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it announced today.
Since at least 2008, Kaplan Higher Education has rejected job applicants based on their credit history. This practice has an unlawful discriminatory impact because of race and is neither job-related nor justified by business necessity, the EEOC charged in its lawsuit.
As a result of these practices, the company has violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to the lawsuit (Civil Action No. 1:10-cv-02882) filed by the EEOC’s Cleveland Field Office in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. It is a violation of Title VII to use hiring practices that have a discriminatory impact because of race and that are not job-related and justified by business necessity.
The EEOC attempted to reach a voluntary settlement before filing suit. The EEOC seeks injunctive relief in its lawsuit, as well as lost wages and benefits and offers of employment for people who were not hired because of Kaplan Higher Education’s use of job applicants’ credit history.
“Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was intended to eliminate practices that serve as arbitrary barriers to employment because of a job applicant’s race,” said Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence of the EEOC’s Philadelphia District Office, which oversees Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland, and portions of New Jersey and Ohio. “Employers need to be mindful that any hiring practice be job-related and not screen out groups of people, even if it does so unintentionally.”
Workplace discrimination charge filings with the federal agency nationwide rose to an unprecedented level of 99,922 during fiscal year 2010.
The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination.
–By Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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66 comments Add your comment
Dr NO
December 23rd, 2010
7:22 am
THe nature of the lawsuit in and of itself is discriminatory. And Kaplan Higher Education Corporation should immediately pull all funding for this school and close it.
GNGS
December 23rd, 2010
9:05 am
Many of you may not know this: Kaplan is a FOR-PROFIT business that is owned by The Washington Post Co. The profit from this branch of the Post has sustained the newspaper business.
GNGS
December 23rd, 2010
9:33 am
The law (Title VII) is clear that am employer (with more than 15 employees) can not have a practice that results in eliminating employment opportunity for a sub-population when the said practice is not job-related or a business necessity. Having an intention or not to discriminate is immaterial.
Hypothetically, let’s say you have a factory making tea bags and you need to hire new employees on assembly line. One of the questions to screen out candidates is whether a job candidate drinks coffee. This seems to be a fair question to you since you are a tea company and you do not want coffee lovers. Now, if all white applicants answered yes to the question and, thus they will be removed from applicant pool. This question/practice that results in a class of job seekers being disqualified is discriminatory. The reason is that drinking coffee or not is not a business necessity for the job and it has nothing to do with performing a job on an assembly line in a tea factory.
Reading from the limited information available online, my guess is that the case will likely rest on whether having a great credit history is essential for performing the advertised jobs.
Dr NO
December 23rd, 2010
10:34 am
Sub-population is discreminatory in and of itself.
People who have bad credit scores are more seek out embezzlement opportunities, have poor self-management skills, are generally of poor character, have poor planning skills etc.
Dr NO
December 23rd, 2010
10:37 am
All in all tho it really doesnt matter because people of this type nature…poor credit scores…generally will get themselves terminated via something really stupid.
Double Zero Eight
December 23rd, 2010
10:52 am
The governor is responsible for a billion dollar budget.
A credit check should be required accordingly.
I wonder what Deal’s credit score is with the debt
he is carrying?
Double Zero Eight
December 23rd, 2010
11:01 am
@ Dr NO
Per your reasoning, Deal will get himself terminated
by doing something really stupid. I am willing to bet he
will be a multi-millionaire by the time he leaves office,
if he is not impeached.
TopPublicSchool
December 23rd, 2010
11:23 am
@spark ghetto- no need to waste my time. I have a complete psychological …it is a public record…
If you are the example of sane…I will gladly take the title of mentally insane.
TopPublicSchool
December 23rd, 2010
11:25 am
@ Dr. Trotter …Thank you.
Dr NO
December 23rd, 2010
11:41 am
Sorry…Deal was elected by the people. Job postings at private companys are different. You are welcome to try again but for now…
YOU LOSE!!
An American Patriot
December 23rd, 2010
1:38 pm
You know Maureen, no matter the subject you’re blogging about, the comments always, and I mean always, come back to the “race” issue. Do you think maybe, just maybe we might have a “race” problem in this country?
bob leblah
December 23rd, 2010
1:44 pm
Well I guess the NBA draft is discriminatory then. If the qualifications are the ability to jump higher and we agree blacks tend to be better athletes, that eliminates most whites. That is discriminatory. I guess we need to apply affirmative action to the NBA draft based on pop. demographics. Guess only 13% of blacks can get drafted now. The league now should be 50% white.
TopSchool
December 23rd, 2010
7:45 pm
It is all about RACE RELATIONS …I, too was once blind…But now I see…
VERY CLEARLY…and I am WHITE and I am not happy about what I SEE…
Which Job Is Held By More Americans
December 24th, 2010
12:16 am
[...] Owls, birds of prey highlight Christmas Bird Count – In past years, the privately-held company had nWhich Job Is Held By More Americans – [...]
Double Zero Eight
December 24th, 2010
2:33 pm
@ Dr NO
I am cognizant Deal was elected by the public.
My point is there are state agencies that require
credit reports for prospective employees.
It is ironic that he would not qualify for many
positions in state government, yet he is ultimately
in charge of all state agencies. Buy your rationale,
he will do something stupid soon, and I concur
with that assumption.
say what?
December 24th, 2010
8:10 pm
@Dr.No- guess that police chief’s wife, in Henry County, who embezzled nearly a million dollars must be a part of the sub population. What about the bookkeeper at the non-profit in Jonesboro, GA who took thousands of funds that were to help children in need? Technically speaking, EEOC does believe that white females are in the minority so these ladies must be a part of the sub population of which you speak.
Credit should not matter if you are not dealing with money directly. The other problem is employers not hiring people based on the average credit history of a zip code. so because I move into a paid for home in a not so pricy zip code, I get rejected because of the neighbors’ failure to pay their bills?
Something else to discuss, possible employers data mine using your email address and can create a profile of you that way. Thus the reason people are always saying watch what you put on social media website. Could be that these potential employees lacked decorum on their FB and MySpace pages.