New York-based Mavis Discount Tire Inc., which operates as Mavis Tire NY Inc. and Cole Muffler Inc., announced on March 25 that it will pay a $2.1 million settlement following the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s lawsuit. The suit claimed the company discriminated against women by refusing to hire them for various jobs at its stores.
The lawsuit began in January 2012 when the EEOC accused Mavis for violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for not employing women in “field positions” in more than 140 stores in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. At the time of the lawsuit one female was hired in 1990.
According to the EEOC, the $2.1 million payment will be divided among the 46 women affected.
Mavis will also set “extensive safeguards to prevent future discrimination by implementing hiring goals for women, a comprehensive recruitment and hiring protocol, and anti-discrimination policies and training,” according to a consent decree with the EEOC.