Dive Brief:
- A research center affiliated with the University of Chicago will pay $95,000 in back pay and interest to more than 100 Asian job applicants after federal regulators alleged the organization discriminated against the applicants, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Monday.
- National Opinion Research Center, also known as NORC, allegedly discriminated against applicants for positions as coronavirus contact tracers between May 2020 and August 2023, a compliance evaluation by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance programs found. NORC is a contractor for agencies including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Per DOL, the agreement stipulates that NORC will review its hiring practices and producers and conduct training for managers, supervisors and other officials who oversee hiring decisions.
Dive Insight:
DOL cited Executive Order 11246, issued by former President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, in the release. The directive prohibited federal contractors from engaging in employment discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.
Civil rights agencies including the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have cautioned employers about a rise in workplace harassment, intimidation and discrimination against Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander individuals in the years after the pandemic.
Monday’s news is notable in part due to NORC’s previous work. In 2019, EEOC contracted the organization to collect pay data gathered as part of the agency’s EEO-1 Component 2 for fiscal years 2017 and 2018. That data was then analyzed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, which published its findings last year.
“This conciliation agreement holds [NORC] to the terms of their federal contract where they agreed to provide all applicants with equal employment opportunities, and closely examine and audit their employment processes to ensure no barriers to equal employment exist,” Carmen Navarro, regional director for OFCCP, said in DOL’s press release.
