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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: (202) 693-4650
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., the largest U.S. chemical company, is
paying $456,678 in back pay to 31 women as part of a settlement agreement with
the U.S. Department of Labor. The department found that the women were unfairly
denied employment in entry-level jobs at the company's Waynesboro, Va.,
manufacturing facility.
During a regularly scheduled compliance evaluation, the Labor
Department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs found that the
company was using a written test as a central component of its selection
process and that the test disproportionately eliminated qualified female
applicants. DuPont was unable to demonstrate an adequate correlation between an
applicant's test score and on-the-job performance. The plant makes man-made
fiber for the apparel and carpet industries.
"Pre-employment tests can be a stumbling block for women seeking
non-traditional jobs," Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman said. "Employers must
be very careful when they use tests to be sure that they legitimately indicate
which candidates can successfully perform the job and that the tests do not
unfairly screen out qualified women and minority applicants."
Secretary Herman encourages all federal contractors to conduct
self-audits to determine if their hiring and promotion practices discriminate
against women, minorities or other protected classes. "They should not wait for
a scheduled review by the Labor Department," she said. "Corporate-wide reviews
are one way federal contractors can be sure that they are in full compliance."
The women who applied for jobs at the DuPont plant were unaware that
they had been discriminated against. The practice was only uncovered because of
a regularly scheduled compliance review.
DuPont, a long-time federal contractor, quickly agreed to resolve the
problem identified by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.
"Responsible federal contractors such as DuPont are to be commended for working
with us to ensure that there is true equal employment opportunity for all
workers," said Shirley J. Wilcher, who heads the compliance office.
The $456,678 in back pay and interest will be distributed to the 31
women at $14,731 each, making this one of the highest per capita settlements
reached without litigation. DuPont will hire eight of the 31 women and they
will receive retroactive hire dates so that pension benefits and vacation time
they would have received are credited to them.
DuPont also agreed to provide supplemental unemployment protection,
effectively ensuring that the women would not suffer any adverse economic
impact if they were affected by a layoff that did not reach back to their
retroactive seniority dates. Finally, DuPont modified its selection procedure
to ensure that women will not be adversely impacted by the inappropriate use of
test scores in the future.
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, part of the Labor
Department's Employment Standards Administration, enforces Executive Order
11246 and other laws that prohibit employment discrimination by federal
contractors. The agency monitors federal contractors to ensure that they
provide equal employment opportunity without regard to race, gender, color,
religion, national origin, disability or veteran status.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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