US Labor Department sues Convergys for refusing
to comply with investigation of employment practices
Complaint asks judge to order cooperation or ban company from federal contracting
ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit to require Cincinnati-based Convergys Customer Management Group Inc. to submit documents detailing the federal contractor's affirmative action plans and supporting documents for company facilities in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.
Filed with the department's Office of Administrative Law Judges, the suit requires Convergys to provide the department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs with all documents and information requested, cooperate with scheduled compliance reviews and fully comply with the requirements of all laws enforced by the agency. If the company fails to comply, the department seeks to cancel the company's current federal contracts and ban Convergys from future federal contracting.
"Convergys knew when it became a federal contractor that it would be held to equal employment standards," said OFCCP Director Patricia A. Shiu. "Refusing to cooperate, in even the most basic ways — providing required paperwork to the department — flies in the face of the compact all contractors have with the American taxpayer. This agency is prepared to take all actions necessary to correct this, up to and including seeking to ban future government contracts for Convergys."
This is the second lawsuit filed by OFCCP against the company. On Oct. 23, 2015, Chief Administrative Law Judge Stephen R. Henley held that OFCCP's compliance evaluation scheduling process regarding seven other Convergys facilities complied with the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. To date, Convergys has refused to comply with the judge's recommended order and has filed exceptions with the department's Administrative Review Board.
The department's latest action seeks affirmative action plans and related documents for Convergys facilities in Jacksonville and Tamarac, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; Valdosta, Georgia; and Chattanooga and Clarksville, Tennessee.
Convergys is a global customer-service management provider that supplies the federal government with agent-assisted and self-service software. The company has more than 125,000 employees at locations in 22 U.S. states and 31 countries.
OFCCP enforces Executive Order 11246, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974. As amended, these three laws make it illegal for contractors and subcontractors doing business with the federal government to discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or status as a protected veteran. For more information, please call OFCCP's toll-free helpline at 800-397-6251 or visit http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/.