The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Dollar General Corporation (Dolgencorp) have agreed to end a lawsuit brought by the agency under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Title VII) relating to the company’s use of applicants’ criminal histories in its hiring process. As part of the settlement, in the form of a consent decree, Dollar General will pay $6 million to African American job applicants who were conditionally offered a position but had the offers rescinded under the company’s criminal background check policy.
The EEOC’s lawsuit alleged that since 2004, Dollar General has violated Title VII by using a hiring selection procedure nationwide – namely using “criminal justice histories”– that had an unlawful disparate impact against African American applicants.
Dollar General also has agreed to hire a criminology consultant who will assist the company in developing a criminal background check procedure that will consider several factors, to include the time since conviction, the number of offenses, the nature and gravity of the offense(s), and the risk of recidivism. In return, the EEOC has agreed not to use any of the charges of discrimination (including pending charges) as a basis for any other lawsuit against Dollar General relating to the negative impact that the company’s criminal history policy has on African American applicants.
The EEOC’s press release regarding EEOC v. Dolgencorp LLC d/b/a/ Dollar General, Case No. 1:13-cv-04307 (N.D. Ill. November 18, 2019), is available online.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.