PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC has agreed to pay $11.6 million to settle charges it discriminated against older applicants who unsuccessfully applied for associate positions in the firm’s tax or assurance lines of business.

A hearing to approve the settlement is scheduled for March 11 in U.S. District Court in Oakland, according to a motion for settlement filed with the court in Steve Rabin and John Chapman v. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Mr. Rabin filed the original complaint, charging violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and California law, in April 2016 and was joined by Mr. Chapman in September 2016, who also charged violation of Michigan law, according to the motion.

A conditional class certification was granted by the court in March 2019. Plaintiffs then issued notices to about 17,000 potential class members, and 3,456 individuals opted in.

The agreement applies to opt-in applicants who unsuccessfully applied for the associate positions beginning in October 2013 and were at least 40 years old at the time.

Under terms of the settlement agreement, which followed mediation, New York-based PwC “has committed to implementing and enhancing important recruiting and hiring initiatives for the benefit of older applicants,” including advertising job opportunities to older workers, and not asking pre-offer graduation date information, among other provisions.

A joint statement issued Wednesday by PricewaterhouseCoopers and attorneys in the case representing Washington-based AARP Foundation Litigation and plaintiff law firm San Francisco-based Outten & Golden LLP announced the settlement.

PwC said in the statement it “denies having engaged in any unlawful discrimination.” A PwC spokesman and William Alvarado Rivera, senior vice president for litigation at AARP Foundation, said in identical emailed comments that "a mutually satisfactory settlement has been achieved by the parties.”

Outten & Golden partner San Francisco-based Jahan C. Sagafi said in a statement the law firm is “committed to remedying age discrimination in hiring, which can lock qualified, energetic older workers out of job opportunities. Discriminatory obstacles in recruiting, hiring, and retention are unfair and un-American, and they contribute to America’s unemployment problem.”

Last year, Outten & Golden represented plaintiffs in a case in which JPMorgan Chase & Co., which already offered fathers full paid parental leave, agreed to pay $5 million to settle litigation filed on behalf of fathers who claimed they were previously denied the opportunity to receive it.