Temp Agency Discriminates Against Black Workers, Class Action Says

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A class action lawsuit filed against Personnel Staffing Group LLC alleges that the national staffing agency discriminates against African-American men by sending them to the most difficult assignments or not assigning them work at all.

Lead plaintiffs, a group of African-American men, allege that the staffing agency, also known as MVP, systematically discriminates against them by complying with client requests not to assign them as employees and assigning Hispanic employees instead.

The plaintiffs also claim that several companies prohibit MVP from assigning African-American workers to their projects.

The class action lawsuit alleges that the companies use code words to indicate they don’t want African-American workers sent for jobs. Additionally, the complaint claims that MVP administrators who send African-American workers, despite requests not to, are subject to punishment.

The plaintiffs also name seven companies that allegedly made the discriminatory requests not to send workers based on their race to their jobs staffed by MVP.

According to the class action lawsuit, the code word used to tell MVP the company did not want them to send African-American workers was “guapos,” which means “pretty boys” in Spanish. The plaintiffs further allege that a former manager of an Illinois MVP office admitted that the staffing agency screened people for work based on their clothes and tattoos looking “gang related.”

Further, allege the plaintiffs in their complaint, Hispanic workers are not often subject to a background check, while African-American workers are. Additionally, some companies would label files for African-American workers with a “Do Not Return” stamp after their first shift.

African-American workers were also sent to short term, difficult jobs, say the plaintiffs in their class action. In one instance described in the complaint, African-American workers were sent to work in excessive heat at a bakery and several collapsed.

An attorney for the plaintiffs says they hope to quell similar practices by other staffing companies.

“We know of other companies that are engaged in the same practices,” Joseph Sellers, chair of the Civil Rights and Employment Practice at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, told Law360. “It’s based on an effort to accommodate and anticipate the preferences [of client companies]. In the staffing industry, these kinds of practices can still flourish.”

Several other class actions have been filed against MVP and various staffing agencies alleging discriminatory employment practices. According to one of the attorneys for this class action, this lawsuit should result in an end to discriminatory practices.

“We are hoping to draw into the case both MVP and the client companies that the law treats as jointly liable in hopes we can get injunctive relief to end the practice,” Sellers said.

The plaintiffs are represented by Christopher J. Williams and Alvar Ayala of Workers’ Law Office PC and Joseph M. Sellers, Shaylyn Cochran and Miriam R. Nemeth of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC.

The Discriminatory Staffing Class Action Lawsuit is Antwoin Hunt, et al. v. Personnel Staffing Group LLC, et al., Case No. 1:16-cv-11086, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.