On Monday, the EEOC announced that it obtained a consent decree from an Arizona federal court for $1,875,000 for 52 individuals on the grounds that managers at the University of Phoenix showed preferential treatment to Mormon employees. In its class action lawsuit, the EEOC alleged that the “University of Phoenix engaged in a widespread practice of discriminating against non-Mormon employees who worked as enrollment counselors in the University’s Online Division.” In particular, witnesses testified that “that managers in the Online Enrollment Department at the University of Phoenix discriminated against non-Mormon employees, and favored Mormon employees, in several ways, including: (1) providing the Mormon employees better leads on potential students; (2) disciplining non-Mormon employees for conduct for which Mormon employees were not disciplined; (3) promoting lesser-qualified or unqualified Mormon enrollment counselors to management positions while repeatedly denying such promotions to non-Mormon enrollment counselors; and (4) denying tuition waivers to non-Mormon employees for failing to meet registration goals, while granting the waivers to Mormon employees.”
In addition to the monetary relief, the consent decree required the employer to engage in other activities in the future, including: (i) Dissemination of a Zero Tolerance Policy to all employees in the University of Phoenix Online Enrollment Department, stating that the company has zero tolerance for religious discrimination and that any violation of the policy will result in termination; (ii) Training for managers and non-managers on the issue of religious discrimination; (iii) Creating a system to include in managers’ evaluations an assessment of their compliance with equal employment opportunity laws; and (iv) Hiring a Diversity Officer, and the staff necessary, at the University of Phoenix to monitor compliance with the terms of the consent decree.
Insomniacs can read the full EEOC press release at http://www.eeoc.gov/press/11-10-08.html.
