DialAmerica Marketing to Pay $85,000 in EEOC Race, Sex and Retaliatory Discrimination Lawsuit

Cleveland – DialAmerica Marketing, LLC, a provider of telemarketing and call-center services for third-party clients, will pay $85,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charging race and sex discrimination and retaliation, the federal agency announced today.

The EEOC’s lawsuit charged that a DialAmerica manager at its former Middleburg Heights, Ohio location falsely accused a black female employee of using profanity on a customer call and sought to use the accusation to justify firing the employee, while the manager’s real reason was the employee’s race and sex. The suit alleged the employee later called DialAmerica’s senior vice president of human resources to report discrimination and that DialAmerica retaliated against the employee for her complaint.

Such alleged conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from discriminating against workers because of race or sex and also prohibits employers from retaliating against workers because they report or otherwise oppose conduct that they reasonably believe to be employment discrimination. The EEOC filed suit (U.S. EEOC v. DialAmerica Marketing, LLC, Civil Action No. 1:24-cv-01674-SO) in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division.

The parties subsequently agreed to settle the case before trial, and on June 24, the federal court approved the two-year consent decree resolving the litigation. In addition to paying $85,000 to the employee, DialAmerica is specifically prohibited from unlawfully discriminating against workers because of race or sex when making discharge decisions and when applying any call review or auditing or performance evaluation procedures.

DialAmerica must also maintain an employment policy which prohibits race and sex discrimination, as well as retaliation in the workplace, and also requires all employees designated to receive reports of alleged discrimination or harassment to document those reports in writing. In addition to other actions, DialAmerica must also provide mandatory training to human resources employees about investigating and responding to employees’ reports of alleged discrimination or harassment.

“The EEOC is committed to enforcing federal law and holding employers accountable for race discrimination in employment,” said EEOC Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence. “Federal law guarantees the rights of all workers to earn a living free from employment discrimination, and the EEOC will not shrink from its duty to eradicate unlawful racial discrimination in the American workplace.”

Acting EEOC Cleveland Field Office Director Karen McDonough said, “When making employment decisions or investigating workers’ allegations of discrimination, employers cannot uncritically rely on supervisors’ reporting of events — especially when those supervisors themselves are alleged to have engaged in discrimination. Before concluding an investigation of a worker’s allegations of discrimination, an employer must gather relevant evidence, apply a clear and reasonable decisional process, and make an informed and considered decision.”

For more information on race and sex discrimination prohibited by Title VII, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/racecolor-discrimination and https://www.eeoc.gov/sex-based-discrimination.

The EEOC’s Cleveland Field Office is a component of the Philadelphia District Office, which has jurisdiction over eastern Ohio as well as Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and parts of New Jersey. Attorneys in the EEOC Philadelphia District Office also prosecute discrimination cases in Washington, D.C., and parts of Virginia.

The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division; the EEOC is responsible for investigating charges against state and local government employers before referring them to DOJ for potential litigation. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.