The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently announced settlement of a class-based lawsuit brought by the agency accusing BMW Manufacturing of utilizing a criminal background check policy that violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII).
Under the terms of the consent decree approved by the federal trial court in EEOC v. BMW Mfg., Inc., No. 7:13-cv-01583 (D.S.C. consent decree approved Sept. 8, 2015), BMW agrees to pay $1.6 million in victim-specific monetary relief and to make significant changes to its background check policy. Among other things, the company will revise its procedures to include a process for conducting individualized assessments prior to disqualifying any individual on the basis of a prior criminal record, a major demand of the EEOC.
In a press release announcing the settlement, EEOC General Counsel David Lopez acknowledged that employers “may choose to use criminal history as a screening device in employment,” but that where doing so results in disparate impact against a protected class, “the employer must evaluate whether the policy is job related and consistent with a business necessity,” consistent with Title VII.
The EEOC’s press release announcing the settlement is available here.