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A Chicago-area staffing agency will pay $800,000 under a consent decree resolving two discrimination lawsuits filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

The EEOC's two lawsuits alleged multiple violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  Specifically, the EEOC charged that Source One Staffing, Inc. engaged in the following unlawful conduct: the company 1) assigned female employees to a known hostile work environment; 2) retaliated against two female employees who reported that their supervisor was making sexual advances toward them; 3) categorized jobs as "men's work" or "women's work" and assigned employees accordingly; 4) asked impermissible pre-employment medical questions in violation of the ADA; and 5) failed or refused to assign employees to certain jobs because of their race and/or national origin.

The EEOC filed the suits in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division (EEOC v. Source One Staffing, Inc., Civil Action Nos. 11-cv-06754 & 15-cv-01958) after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process in both cases. 

The consent decree settling the suits, entered by U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis on May 6, provides $800,000 in monetary relief.  Of that, $70,000 will go to the sexual harassment and retali­ation victims. The remaining $730,000 will be distributed evenly to a class of female employees who were not considered for certain work on the basis of their sex.  

The decree also requires Source One to take the following affirmative steps: 1) train its employees on employees' rights under Title VII and the ADA; 2) report complaints of discrimination during the decree's three-year term; 3) change its employment policies and practices to conform to the ADA and Title VII; and 4) post a notice of the decree at all of its locations.  Finally, Source One's compliance with decree will overseen by an independent monitor, Chris Wilmes of Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd.