R-ANELL HOUSING TO PAY $200,000 TO SETTLE EEOC SEX DISCRIMINATION SUIT

PRESS RELEASE
8-13-09

Company Refused to Hire Female Production Workers, Federal Agency Charged

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – R-Anell Housing Group, LLC, a manufacturer of pre-fabricated commercial structures and custom modular homes, will pay $200,000 and provide significant injunctive relief to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.

The EEOC had charged that R-Anell Housing refused to hire Amy Hall and a class of similarly situated female applicants because of their sex. According to the complaint, R-Anell engaged in gender-based discriminatory hiring practices at its Cherryville, N.C., manufacturing facility beginning as early as 2004, and at a manufacturing facility previously operated in Denver, N.C., beginning as early as 2003. The EEOC further charged that R-Anell maintains a sex-segregated workforce that has the effect of denying female employees equal employment opportunities. According to the EEOC court-filed complaint, R-Anell also failed to preserve applications and personnel records as required by law. Sex discrimination violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“Excluding all women – half the population and half the talent pool – from the workplace is a counter-intuitive business strategy and illegal,” said EEOC Acting Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru. “This settlement shows the EEOC will insist on meaningful relief for victims of such blatant sex discrimination.”

In addition to the $200,000 in back pay and compensatory damages, the four-year consent decree resolving the case (EEOC v. R-Anell Housing Group, LLC, Case No. 5:07-CV-00106 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina) includes injunctive relief enjoining R-Anell Housing from engaging in sex discrimination or retaliation. The consent decree also requires recruitment and hiring efforts directed toward employing women; anti-discrimination training; the posting of a notice about the EEOC; preservation of applications and personnel records by the company; and reporting by the company concerning its recruitment efforts and hiring.

Lynette A. Barnes, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District Office, said, “Sex discrimination in hiring continues to be an issue in the 21st century workplace. This is particularly in non-traditional fields for women, such as construction. Employers in the Carolinas and throughout the United States must be careful to give equal consideration in hiring to both genders, regardless of the work involved. The EEOC will continue to enforce workplace civil rights laws vigorously to remedy and eradicate sex discrimination.”

The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.

This page was last modified on August 13, 2009.