Employee interviews identified a practice of hiring based on word-of-mouth employee referrals

A routine compliance review conducted by the Office of Federal Contracts Compliance Programs (OFCCP) of Rockland Bakery Inc. revealed that, from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2017, a practice of word-of-mouth employee referrals was being used to fill open positions.

Rockland Bakery entered into a conciliation agreement (CA) and will pay $850,000 to resolve the allegations of hiring discrimination impacting female, Black, and Asian applicants for cashier, packer, and baker positions. The company will also extend 52 job opportunities to qualified female, Black, and Asian applicants, provide training to all company employees involved in hiring decisions and review and revise its recruitment processes to ensure that they are free from discrimination.

Rockland Bakery, located in New York, has a service contract with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to provide baked goods to West Point Academy. They are also the preferred vendor for many large federal contractors.

OutSolve’s Take

This Conciliation Agreement focuses on the need to conduct outreach to identify, consider and place qualified minority, female, veteran, and candidates with disabilities. It is also important to document all recruiting and outreach efforts, analyze their effectiveness and make changes where necessary to demonstrate ongoing outreach efforts.

To assist in identifying resources, contractors can search the OFCCP Employment Resource Referral Directory. OutSolve has also partnered with Broadbean Technologies to assist our clients with distributing job openings to state job boards (ESDS), local community-based organizations, and various diversity sites. For more information about these services, customers can contact their OutSolve Consultant or OutSolve directly at 888-414-2410 or info@outsolve.com.