EEOC sues CVS over alleged unlawful language in severance document
Reprints
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing drugstore chain CVS Caremark Corp., accusing it of unlawfully violating employees' rights to communicate with the agency and file discrimination charges in the company's severance document.
The lawsuit accuses CVS of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by conditioning the receipt of severance benefits for certain employees on an overly broad severance agreement “set forth in five pages of small print” that interfered with their right to file discrimination charges and/or communicate and cooperate with the agency, the EEOC said Friday in a statement.
“Charges and communication with employees play a critical role in the EEOC's enforcement process because they inform the agency of employer practices that might violate the law,” Chicago-based EEOC Regional Attorney John C. Hendrickson said in the statement.
“For this reason, the right to communicate with the EEOC is a right that is protected by federal law. When an employer attempts to limit that communication, the employer effectively is attempting to buy employee silence about potential violations of the law. Put simply, that is a deal that employers cannot lawfully make,” Mr. Hendrickson said.
The lawsuit is unwarranted, Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS said in a statement.
“Nothing in CVS' severance agreement prevents a former employee from filing a complaint with the EEOC or cooperating in an EEOC investigation,” CVS said in its statement.
“In fact, we have included language in our agreement to state that it does not prohibit employees from doing so. We have been cooperating with the agency and remain willing to cooperate; we are disappointed that the EEOC has taken this aggressive action.”
