AMS will pay $205,000 in back wages and interest to 67 Black applicants

During a routine compliance evaluation of AECOM Management Services’ (AMS) Virginia Beach location, the OFCCP alleged that from January 1, 2018, through December 31, 2019, the company discriminated against Black applicants in the hiring process for aircraft workers, resulting in a hiring shortfall of eight Black hires. To resolve the allegations, AMS entered into a conciliation agreement (CA) and has agreed to pay $205,000 in back wages and interest to 67 Black affected applicants.

As vacancies occur in the Aircraft Worker job title at the Virginia Beach location, AMS will make job offers of full-time employment to applicants who are listed as eligible class members, who have expressed interest in employment, who meet the basic qualifications, and who are not currently employed in the job title, until eight are hired. The company will document the job offers and hires, including job offers made, reasons for rejection, and eligible applicants hired and terminated during the monitoring period. They will provide two status reports to the OFCCP.

AMS also agreed to cease using any selection procedures that resulted in the adverse impact. It will also review and, if necessary, revise the job description and selection process for the Aircraft Worker job title. Within 90 calendar days of the CA, AMS will train all individuals involved in any way in recruiting, selecting, and tracking applicants for the Aircraft Worker positions in Virginia Beach.  

In January 2020, AMS was sold to Amentum, a privately-owned company located in Germantown, MD. The company employs more than 34,000 employees in all 50 states and performs work in 105 foreign countries and territories. They hold contracts with the Department of Navy, Department of the Army, U.S. Air Force, and the National Aeronautics & Space Administration.

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OutSolve’s Take

Hiring-related cases continue to be one of the top violations found in OFCCP compliance reviews. In most cases, the contractor has not been proactive in monitoring their hiring decisions for potential discriminatory effects on protected groups. decisions for potential disparities. The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (41 CFR 60-3) require an employer to evaluate selection rates for adverse impact. If adverse impact is indicated then the contractor should examine their overall procedures, and drill down to individual steps to uncover problem areas

Implementing standard practices that prevent or flag potential adverse impact in hiring is a worthy investment. Failure to invest in a consistent and well-designed monitoring process can result in financial penalties, additional reporting, loss of time, and ultimately loss of valuable talent.

Here are helpful tips to monitor potential adverse impact:

1. Evaluate your recruitment and hiring procedures for areas that may result in adverse impact discrimination. Fitness tests, policies, training, interview processes, and other factors could cause disparities in your selection process.
2. Analyze selection rates for hires, promotions, terminations or other selection types at periodic intervals, e.g., on a quarterly basis.
3. Use disposition codes to document decisions at each stage of the hiring process. Using disposition reasons provides information to analyze each step in the selection process. It also benefits a contractor with the ability to document the non-discriminatory reasons for not selecting an applicant.
4. Train hiring managers, recruiters, and anyone else making hiring decisions on equal employment opportunity, affirmative action, recruitment/hiring best practices and compliant recordkeeping requirements.

For more information on adverse impact analyses or OFCCP compliance reviews, please contact OutSolve at info@outsolve.com or 888.414.2410.