EEOC and Pepsi Beverages

EEOC Update:

In August of 2011 The Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc. agreed to pay $120,000 to settle a disability lawsuit filed by the EEOC. According to the lawsuit, Pepsi terminated Eldridge Davis, a driver at its Hayward, CA facility, for "job abandonment and violation of the company attendance policy." Sounded straightforward. Right? Wrong! Davis had followed proper procedure to inform his supervisor and the company that he could not finish his route due to his disability and he needed to take medical leave. Davis, who was 48 at the time, had been with Pepsi since October 1996. Well, Pepsi settled and agreed to implement preventative measures.

Fast forward to January 11, 2012.

Pepsi Beverages (formerly known as Pepsi Bottling Group) has agreed to pay $3.13 million and provide job offers and training to resolve a charge of race discrimination filed in the Minneapolis Area Office of the EEOC.

The EEOC's investigation revealed that more than 300 African Americans were adversely affected when Pepsi applied a criminal background check policy. Such policy disproportionately excluded black applicants from permanent employment. Under this new policy, job applicants who had been "arrested pending prosecution" were not hired for a permanent job even if they had never been convicted of any offense.

“When employers contemplate instituting a background check policy, the EEOC recommends that they take into consideration the nature and gravity of the offense, the time that has passed since the conviction and/or completion of the sentence, and the nature of the job sought in order to be sure that the exclusion is important for the particular position. Such exclusions can create an adverse impact based on race in violation of Title VII,” said Julie Schmid, Acting Director of the EEOC’s Minneapolis Area Office. “We hope that employers with unnecessarily broad criminal background check policies take note of this agreement and reassess their policies to ensure compliance with Title VII."