by HR Group Staff Writers

The OFCCP (Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs) announced last September that it is filing suit against Leprino Foods, the largest producer of mozzarella and whey products to the Farm Services Agency with contracts totaling 5 million dollars. The suit seeks back pay and interest for at least 270 class members and job offers for at least 17 of the original applicants and asks for cancellation of the company's existing federal contracts as well as debarment from future contracts unless and until the violations are resolved and the company rectifies its inequitable employment procedures.

At issue is a pre-employment screening tool Leprino Foods uses called WorkKeys. WorkKeys is a job skills assessment that measures abilities in Applied Mathematics (from simple addition and subtraction to calculating the volume of 3-dimensional solids), Locating Information (from simple to very complex graphics interpretations), and Reading for Information (from simple instructions to legal documents with complex sentence structures). Leprino claims that these skills are essential for on-call laborers in order to perform entry-level tasks such as inspecting products, monitoring equipment, and maintaining sanitation at the facility.

The OFCCP collected data from a 22-month period and discovered that Leprino's worker selection rate based on this assessment was 49% for minority applicants as compared to 72% for non-minority applicants. OFCCP Director Patricia A. Shiu said, "Leprino Foods' hiring process simply doesn't pass the sniff test. When workers are denied employment because of factors that have nothing to do with their ability to perform the job, something is not right. Our message to the company is clear: Correct your discriminatory practices and make restitution to the victims or lose your lucrative federal contracts."

If your company uses pre-employment assessment tools, please be sure you are using them in a way that were intended or designed to be used. The DOL has issued guidelines to follow when using tests. Click here to read the guidelines.

If you have any concerns, we encourage you to contact our office at (336) 292-1911 and we will be happy to discuss them with you.