Kane’s Furniture is to pay nearly $1.5 million in EEOC Sex Discrimination Lawsuit.
Settles Federal Suit Kanes’ Furniture, LLC Refused to Hire Women for Driver and Warehouse Positions.
MIAMI, FL (STL.News) Kane’s Furniture, LLC, a Florida-based furniture retail company, will pay $1,482,748.00 in monetary relief and provide significant equitable relief to settle a federal class sex discrimination lawsuit, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced January 13, 2025.
In its lawsuit, the EEOC charged that since at least 2021, Kane’s Furniture has implemented a discriminatory policy of not hiring female applicants for driver and warehouse positions at its distribution center or any of its eighteen retail locations across Florida. The lawsuit also charged that recruiters expressly excluded women from the hiring process.
Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Kane’s Furniture, LLC, Civil Action No.: 8:23-cv-02067-SDM-NHA) in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division after first attempting to reach a voluntary pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
In addition to providing monetary relief to the class of female applicants, the three-year consent decree settling the case requires Kane’s Furniture to implement equitable relief, including implementing new hiring practices and EEO policies; hiring an independent expert to oversee training, investigating, and reviewing complaints of sex discrimination, and ensure compliance with the terms of the consent decree; and annual reporting of any complaints of discrimination to the EEOC.
“Sixty years after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed job discrimination based on sex, some employers still blatantly refuse to hire women,” said EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows. This resolution helps advance the bedrock American principle of equal employment opportunity for all.”
“Kane’s overlooked qualified applicants simply because of their sex,” said EEOC Assistant Regional Attorney Beatriz Andre, who supervised the litigation. This resolution ensures that women will have equal opportunity to employment, specifically in jobs in which they are all too often excluded.”
EEOC Miami District Director Evangeline Hawthorne said, “It is imperative that the EEOC works to remove hurdles women face when trying to find employment solely because of their sex. his settlement demonstrates the EEOC’s commitment to eliminating barriers in recruitment and hiring, including the too-common practice of excluding individuals from a category of jobs because of their protected class.”
