Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Kaplan Higher Education Sued Over Alleged Job Discrimination

Kaplan Higher Education Sued Over Alleged Job Discrimination: Federal officials on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Kaplan Higher Education Corp., a nationwide provider of postsecondary education, for allegedly discriminating against Black job applicants by screening the credit history of potential employees.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says the practice of rejecting job seekers based on their credit history has a discriminatory impact on some racial and ethnic groups. The lawsuit alleges that Kaplan's practice is not job-related or justified by business necessity.

As a result of this practice dating back to 2008, the company has violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to the lawsuit filed by the EEOC’s Cleveland field office in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. It is a violation of Title VII to use hiring practices that have a discriminatory impact because of race and that are not job-related and justified by business necessity.