Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Consolidated Service Systems
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
989 F.2d 233 (7th Cir. 1993)
Consolidated Service Systems (defendant), a small janitorial company owned by Korean immigrant Mr. Hwang, relied primarily on word-of-mouth referrals within his immigrant community to hire employees, resulting in Korean applicants making up 73 percent of applicants and 81 percent of new hires despite representing under 1 percent of the general local workforce; the EEOC (plaintiff) sued alleging this recruitment method discriminated in favor of Korean-origin individuals under Title VII, and the district court found no proven discrimination.
Whether word-of-mouth employee recruitment resulting in racial disparity compels an inference of intentional discrimination.