FORT WORTH, Texas -

Compliance expert Randy Henrick, who also is a part of the team at Ignite Consulting Partners, shared a costly example of how not following federal statutes when making personnel decisions can inflict some significant financial pain on independent and buy-here, pay-here dealers.

Henrick recently recapped that an Ohio dealer has agreed to pay $390,000 to three employees in the settlement of an age discrimination lawsuit brought by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Henrick indicated that the EEOC brought the lawsuit after its attempts to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process were unsuccessful.

In addition to paying the monetary sums to three former employees, Henrick mentioned that the dealer must report all hiring and termination decisions to the EEOC for the term of the two-year consent decree as well as establish compliance and training programs aimed at preventing age discrimination and protecting from retaliation employees who file grievances.

Henrick added that the dealer must also post notices of the settlement in conspicuous locations.

According to the EEOC, the dealer refused to hire a former employee because of her age (52) and terminated two sales employees because of their ages (67 and 70). Henrick said this conduct violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), which prohibits discrimination in employment against people who are age 40 or older.

“At Ignite, we always try to emphasize the importance of having a good employee handbook, arbitration agreement, and progressive discipline policy,” Henrick said.

“An ADEA age discrimination suit can be asserted by any employee aged 40 or over,” he continued. “Be prepared to document in detail your reasons for terminating or failing to hire any such person. Train your employees on age discrimination which also extends to the terms and conditions of employment such as promotions, compensation and workplace policies.

“Employment decisions should be age neutral. Now would be a good time to update your policies and practices,” Henrick went on to say.

Dealers can get help with employment issues and other compliance matters by sending a message to info@ignitecp.com or calling (817) 900-8754.