Security Engineers, Inc., a security contractor headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, will pay $1.6 million, do training, and provide other relief to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

According to the federal lawsuit, Security Engineers systematically engaged in sex discrimination by denying security officer jobs and assignments to women. Not only were there directives in the company’s human resources database that said: “DO NOT schedule a female for this post” and “Post is MALE ONLY!”, but Security Engineers personnel even admitted to some women applicants that they were being rejected because they were women, despite their experience in security, law enforcement, or the military.

What would a respectful workplace do?

Discrimination in the workplace is not just a moral and legal issue. A respectful workplace knows that discrimination is bad for business.  When employees face discrimination, it can lead to a host of negative outcomes that affect both the individual and the business as a whole:

  • Employees facing unfairness are significantly more likely to leave. It costs companies thousands to replace a single employee, directly impacting profitability.
  • Biased environments foster disengagement. When workers feel undervalued or sidelined, their overall motivation and daily output drop.
  • Discrimination scandals or boycotts result in immediate reputational damage and lost revenue.
  • Homogeneous teams are often less innovative. 

When hiring, your managers need to find top talent quickly and efficiently but without putting your company in legal jeopardy. In our Hiring the Best workshop, we’ll teach your managers how to screen resumes when interviewing without creating legal risk, how to effectively use behavior-based questions, the legal framework for hiring including EEO laws, affirmative action, and much more.

Call 800-458-2778 or email us today for more information about Hiring the Best: Interview Training for Managers.

Information here is correct at the time it is posted. Case decisions cited here may be reversed. Please do not rely on this information without consulting an attorney first.