D.C. Metro Settles Employment Discrimination Claims for $6.5M

A federal court has granted preliminary approval of a $6.5 million civil rights settlement resolving allegations of racial discrimination in the employee background checks used by D.C. Metro.

U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer granted the motion for preliminary settlement approval on Friday. The settlement will provide benefits to about 1,000 African-American employees and job applicants who were allegedly denied employment due to a discriminatory effect of certain D.C. Metro background check policies concerning prior criminal convictions.

Under terms of the settlement, D.C. Metro will create a $6.5 million settlement fund. The fund will used to pay service awards for class representatives, class counsel’s attorneys’ fees and costs, a claims administration fee, and other deductions specified in the settlement agreement. Remaining funds will be distributed among qualifying Class Members who make claims for economic losses.

D.C. Metro has also agreed to change its background check policies for at least one year. Under the new policy, job applicants with criminal convictions can get an individualized assessment of their overall records. Fewer criminal offenses will count toward automatic and presumptive disqualification.

The settlement does not require D.C. Metro to admit liability. The agency says it agreed to the settlement to avoid the burden and expense of further litigation.

Nine plaintiffs filed this D.C. Metro class action lawsuit in July 2014, claiming the agency’s background check policy had the effect of discriminating against African-American employees and applicants.

Appendices within the written policy, each pertaining to different types of jobs, listed specific types of criminal offenses and the numbers of such offenses that could get an applicant disqualified from further consideration.

The settlement creates three plaintiff Classes, the same Classes certified by the court in its March 31, 2017 order.

The three Classes cover all African-American persons who, within the applicable class periods, were denied D.C. Metro employment, terminated or otherwise permanently separated from their positions, suspended, or denied employment with a third-party contractor or subcontractor because of application of Appendix A, C or E of the background screening policy.

A Civil Damages Class will cover those Class Members raising claims for economic loss and who have not already excluded themselves.

Top Class Actions will post updates to this class action settlement as they become available. For the latest updates, keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter. You can also receive notifications when this article is updated by using your free Top Class Actions account and clicking the “Follow Article” button at the top of the post.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys John A. Freedman of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, Ajmel A. Quereshi and Rachel Kleinman of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Matthew Handley and Dennis A. Corkery of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.

The D.C. Metro Employment Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit is Little, et al. v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, et al., Case No. 1:14-cv-01289-RMC, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

UPDATE: February 2018, the D.C. Metro employment discrimination class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.