Target (No. 25 on Fair360, formerly DiversityInc’s 2015 Top 50 Companies for Diversity) has agreed to pay $2.8 million in a discrimination suit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency revealed Monday.
According to the EEOC, it was discovered in 2006 that some of Target’s employment assessments, which the EEOC described as “not sufficiently job-related and consistent with business necessity, and thus violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” disproportionately screened out applicants based on race and/or gender.
The agency also found that, as part of the pre-hiring process, consultants who were also psychologists were brought in to perform assessments on applicants a violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which dictates that medical exams can only occur following a job offer. In addition, the EEOC alleged that Target did not maintain appropriate records to analyze the effects of its hiring processes.
