On January 10, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida approved a nearly $1.5 million settlement agreement in a case brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against a retail furniture business employing delivery drivers, delivery assistants, and warehouse associates.

Allegations of a Standard Operating Procedure to Not Hire Women

In September 2023, EEOC filed a lawsuit against Kanes Furniture, LLC under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act on behalf of a class of female job applicants alleging a “standard operating procedure of denying employment to female applicants for delivery driver, delivery assistant, and warehouse associate positions based on sex.” EEOC alleged that no women were hired in these positions for a period of at least 18 months based on the employer’s purported intentional exclusion of female applicants and denials of employment.

EEOC also claimed that the effect of the employer’s practices was that women had been “screened out” from employment in the positions at issue. The factual allegations underlying EEOC’s lawsuit include that a woman applied for a delivery driver position and attended a job fair where a recruiter told her the company “was looking to hire a man” for the position and that the position “required heavy lifting.”

Terms of the Settlement

Employers should be aware that settlement agreements with EEOC differ significantly from settlements of lawsuits brought by plaintiffs with private legal counsel. As a routine matter, EEOC requires employers to agree to terms beyond a monetary settlement amount, typically involving entry of an injunction to stop engaging in conduct EEOC deems unlawful, issuance of notice to employees or former employees of the lawsuit and settlement, employee handbook and policy revisions, management training, and a period of time permitting EEOC to monitor compliance. The nature and scope of the non-monetary terms that parties agree to varies depending on the facts and claims at issue. These terms, along with the monetary amount of the settlement, do not remain confidential. Instead, they become part of a consent decree that is publicly filed with the court and made an enforceable order upon the court’s approval.

In this settlement, the consent decree set out a procedure for identifying the class members who can potentially partake in the $1.41 million class settlement fund; therefore, the total amount per individual is not known. The woman who EEOC alleged had been told at the job fair the company was looking to hire a man and who did not get hired for the driving position will receive $72,748. In addition to the monetary terms, the employer will be required to update its job applications and advertisements with anti-discrimination language (including a hotline to report discrimination and a “know your rights” disclaimer about filing a charge with EEOC), retain an Independent Subject Matter Expert to provide training to human resources, executives, and management employees and to consult on complaints and investigations of sex discrimination and who will also submit annual reports to  EEOC making recommendations on steps the employer “should take to increase its hiring of women,” create a written anti-discrimination policy, update its hiring policies and procedures, and publicly post and distribute copies of the consent decree. The employer is subject to extensive EEOC monitoring and reporting obligations for a period of three years.

EEOC’s Litigation Priorities

As previously reported on in this blog here, EEOC has published a Strategic Enforcement Plan for 2024-2028 setting out its litigation priorities and focus areas. The Kanes Furniture case checks a lot of boxes regarding EEOC’s systemic litigation priorities, including its aim to challenge hiring practices—especially those that segregate individuals into specific jobs based on legally-protected characteristics—and to target sectors with continued underrepresentation of women. Employers should critically assess their job advertisements, position descriptions, and hiring practices to avoid unintentional discouragement or screening out of female applicants or sex segregation of the workforce by job type. 

EEOC’s complaint also included a claim that the employer had failed to complete and submit required EEO-1 reports for at least three years, and the Consent Decree includes a requirement that the employer must timely file its annual EEO-1 reports to include data by job category and sex and ethnicity. Preservation and reporting on employee data and records is an additional litigation priority listed in EEOC’s Strategic Enforcement Plan. We have observed EEOC including more of these types of claims against employers in recent years. This is a good reminder that employers should be completing and submitting and required EEO-1 reports to stay in compliance.