Staffing companies New Koosharem Corporation and Real Time Staffing Corporation will pay $580,000 as part of the settlement of a class race and national origin discrim­ination lawsuit brought by the EEOC.

The EEOC had charged that New Koosharem and Real Time Staffing discriminated against four applicants and a class of African-American and non-Hispanic applicants by failing to place and or refer those applicants for job placement in the company's Memphis facilities.

Besides requiring the companies to pay $580,000 in damages and back pay to the class members, the three-year consent decree resolving the case:

• enjoins New Koosharem and Real Time Staffing from discriminating against applicants and temporary workers because of race and national origin in the future;
• requires the companies to provide four hours of training annually on race, retaliation, and national origin discrimination to all managerial employees in its six facilities in Tennessee and the Northern District of Mississippi;
• requires the defendants' regional vice president or an officer to appear prior to the training in person or via video to announce the defendants' non-discrimination policy  and the consequences for violating the policy;
• requires that New Koosharem and Real Time Staffing revise the application process for walk-in applicants;
• requires the companies' director of internal compliance to conduct an internal audit every six months to determine whether the defendants refer or place applicants in the order that the applicants sign the log sheets and to submit reports to EEOC after the audit;
• allows the EEOC to monitor and review compliance with the decree, and;
• requires the defendants to post notice of this resolution.

The regional attorney of the EEOC's Memphis District Office, added, "We are pleased that New Koosharem and Real Time Staffing chose not to engage in protracted litigation. Instead, they focused on making significant changes in the workplace for walk-in applicants and agreed to specific measures such as training, reporting, and monitoring to ensure that all applicants, irrespective of race and national origin, will be treated equally during the hiring process."