Global security services provider enters agreement to resolve alleged racial hiring discrimination at Houston facility

Summary

The United States Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has reached a conciliation agreement with Allied Universal, a global security and facility services provider, to resolve alleged systemic race-based hiring discrimination at a Houston facility operated by one of its subsidiaries, G4S Secure Solutions. The agreement follows a routine compliance evaluation that alleged the company’s hiring practices violated Executive Order 11246 by discriminating against 1,459 Black applicants for security officer positions from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2017.

The agreement requires Allied Universal to pay $411,000 in back wages to 1,459 unsuccessful Black applicants and revise its recruiting and selection procedures to ensure compliance with federal regulations. Additionally, the company must extend job opportunities to 28 affected Black applicants in Houston. Federal law prohibits federal contractors from discriminating in employment based on race, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.

The OFCCP’s evaluation found that the company had contracts with the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board during the evaluation period. In a separate federal investigation into the company’s pay practices, the Wage and Hour Division found that Allied Universal automatically deducted time for meal breaks when security officers were often required to work through all or some of them, resulting in the recovery of nearly $1.1 million in back wages and damages for 778 employees and a nationwide enhanced agreement to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime and recordkeeping provisions.

Allied Universal, founded in 1957, is one of the world’s largest security and facility services providers, operating in about 90 countries and employing approximately 800,000 people globally. The company has corporate headquarters in Irvine, California, and Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, and provides security personnel, monitoring equipment, response units, and secure prisoner transportation.

The OFCCP launched the Class Member Locator to identify applicants or workers who may be entitled to monetary relief and/or consideration for job placement as a result of OFCCP’s compliance evaluations and complaint investigations. Individuals who think they may be a class member for G4S Secure Solutions can visit the OFCCP website to learn more about this and other settlements.

The OFCCP enforces Executive Order 11246, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, ensuring that federal contractors adhere to federal regulations and provide fair and equal employment opportunities to all individuals.