Home Care Agency Settles Allegations It Accommodated ‘race-Based Requests’ For Aides

Dive Brief:

• ACARE HHC, Inc., which does business as Four Seasons Licensed Home Health Care Agency, agreed to pay $400,000 to settle a lawsuit by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging the company allowed home health assignments based on patients’ racial preferences, according to a Tuesday news release. 
• The Brooklyn, New York-based home health aide provider allegedly terminated the assignments of Black and Hispanic aides to accommodate patients’ and family members’ race-based requests, according to a consent decree filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. If there weren’t other assignments for the aides to be transferred to, they would lose their employment completely, per the press release.
• Four Seasons could not immediately be reached for comment, and ACARE HHC’s Google listing said it was permanently closed. However, Four Seasons denied EEOC’s allegations and “maintains that it did not and has not engaged in any unlawful actions based on [a home health attendant’s] race and/or national origin,” according to the consent decree.

Dive Insight:

The alleged conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination against employees based on race and national origin, “including in the making of job assignments based on biased client preference,” EEOC said. 

“Employers cannot make job assignment decisions based on a client’s preference for a worker of a particular race or national origin,” EEOC Regional Attorney Kimberly Cruz said in a statement. “It is imperative for employers to have policies, training, and other safeguards in place that help prevent a client’s prejudices from influencing their employment decisions.”

The consent decree will provide $400,000 in monetary relief to a class of home health aides and “significant non-monetary relief designed to prevent discrimination with respect to home health aide assignments in the future,” EEOC said. The consent decree includes updates to the company’s internal policies, mandatory Title VII training for management, guidelines on reporting of complaints, and an injunction preventing Four Seasons from making aide assignments based on race or national origin-based preferences.