©2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP EEOC-INITIATED LITIGATION: 2025 EDITION | 46 45 | EEOC-INITIATED LITIGATION: 2025 EDITION ©2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP KEY CASES FILED IN FY 2024 EEOC v. Intrepid Gymnastics, LLC, Case 3:24-cv-0310 (N.D. Miss.) As described by the EEOC, the company subjected female employees, including teenage coaches, to severe and pervasive sexual harassment. The president and majority owner of Intrepid subjected a 19-year-old employee to unwelcome sexual harassment, continuing a pattern of unlawful conduct including making sexual advances to female employees and students who were 19 years old or younger, frequently offering money for sex, asking them to procure other female employees for group sex, and sending sexually explicit text messages, the EEOC alleged. The company failed to provide its young coaches and employees with a harassment policy defining conduct constituting sexual harassment, failed to give details on reporting harassment, and failed to identify the person responsible for receiving reports of harassment, according to the lawsuit. EEOC v. Shimmick Corporation, Case No. 1:24-cv-00323 (E.D. Tenn.) The EEOC charges that a former employee filed a complaint on behalf of a female employee, his fiancée, alleging sex-based discrimination by the employee’s supervisors. The company investigated the complaint. During the investigation, the female employee responded to the company’s questions and provided evidence of the sex-based discrimination, including identifying two male managerial employees as individuals who tolerated and enabled the discriminatory mistreatment she endured. Less than a month after the investigation, the two managerial employees reassigned the female employee to the nightshift in an attempt to force her to resign. The managers presented the employee with an ultimatum: either agree to work the nightshift or turn in the keys and leave. The managerial employees left the female employee with no choice but to surrender her keys and vacate the job site. KEY SETTLEMENTS SECURED IN FY 2024 EEOC v. Hospital Housekeeping Systems, LLC, 2:21-cv-02134 (W.D. Ark.) The company, a provider of housekeeping, food and facilities support to numerous industries, agreed to pay $520,000 in monetary damages and to other equitable relief to settle a lawsuit filed by the EEOC. According to the lawsuit, the company began requiring employees to take the Essential Functions Test (EFT) at hire, annually, and upon the return from a medical leave of absence, even when portions of the test were not job-related. In addition to the monetary relief, the company must provide a reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities during the administration of the EFT in the future, must not take adverse action against any employee who complains about the EFT, and must not terminate an employee solely based on a failed EFT. The company will conduct semiannual training regarding EFT testing and retaliation under the ADA for three years. EEOC Memphis District Office DISTRICT PROFILE Director: Michelle Eisele Regional Attorney: Kenneth Bird Merit Cases Filed in FY 2024: 4 Average Days Between Determination Letter & Failure to Conciliate: 32 Average Days Between Failure to Conciliate & Complaint: 247 Average Days Between Determination Letter & Complaint: 279 AR MS TN Memphis ©2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP EEOC v. Aaron Thomas Co. et al., Case No. 2:23-cv-02599 (W.D. Tenn.) According to the EEOC’s suit, the company routinely failed to select or retain Black workers for placement at its Memphis, Tennessee locations. The company used multiple covert phrases and techniques when requesting temporary employees from a staffing agency, including requesting Spanish-speaking employees to fill roles that did not require such language skills. The company also segregated employees by race and generally provided Hispanic workers better pay, working conditions, and financial opportunities than Black workers, per the lawsuit. The company agreed to pay $450,000 in monetary damages and also entered into a two-year Consent Decree that requires the company to create and distribute an anti-discrimination policy, develop a recruitment plan designed to attract diverse applicants, and provide specialized anti-discrimination training to managerial employees. The company will also provide the EEOC with periodic reports of any future employee complaints of discrimination and the company’s response to the complaint(s). KEY CASES FILED IN FY 2024 EEOC v. Yas Caribe, Inc. d/b/a Farmacia Carimas, Interamerican Unlimited Drug Inc. d/b/a Farmacia Carimas 2, Al-Teen, Corp. d/b/a Farmacia Carimas 3, Case No. 3:24-cv-01449 (D.P.R.) According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, the company’s manager subjected a female employee to a sexually hostile work environment when a nephew of the company’s owner attacked the female employee before closing the store at night, and subjected her to unwanted sexual contact. The nephew forced the employee onto the floor, forcibly grabbed and kissed her, and rubbed his genitals against her. The employee did not know of any process for complaining about the harassment and was forced to resign. EEOC v. Advanced Auto Parts, Inc., Discount Auto Parts LLC, Case No. 24-cv-81200 (S.D. Fla.) The EEOC alleges that employees at the company refused to follow instructions from an assistant manager because she is gay and called her derogatory names targeting her sexual orientation. Black employees were also called the “n-word” by their coworkers, and a customer said he would pay a Black employee “the same thing [your] grandfather was paid for picking cotton.” The company failed to take prompt corrective action to stop the harassment, the EEOC charged. EEOC Miami District Office DISTRICT PROFILE Director: Evangeline Hawthorne Regional Attorney: Kristen M. Foslid Merit Cases Filed in FY 2024: 8 Average Days Between Determination Letter & Failure to Conciliate: 67 Average Days Between Failure to Conciliate & Complaint: 218 Average Days Between Determination Letter & Complaint: 433 FL Miami Puerto Rico Virgin Islands FL Miami Puerto Rico Virgin Islands ©2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP
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