The U.S. Department of Labor and the Bank of New York Mellon Corp. have entered into an agreement to resolve alleged systematic discrimination by the federal contractor against female, Black and Hispanic employees at its Jersey City location.
A routine compliance review by the department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs found BNY Mellon discriminated against 120 female workers in investment services technology positions and 47 Black and 26 Hispanic workers in its technology services group from Dec. 1, 2016, to Dec. 1, 2017.
OFCCP determined the company paid the female employees less than their male counterparts in similar positions, and paid the Black and Hispanic workers less than their Asian counterparts in similar positions.
These actions violated Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating in employment decisions based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.
On September 24, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson issued Executive Order 11246, which was amended and strengthened over the years, remains a major safeguard, protecting the rights of workers employed by federal contractors—approximately one–fifth of the entire U.S. labor force—to remain free from discrimination on the basis of their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin…and opening the doors of opportunity through its affirmative action provisions.
BNY Mellon entered into a conciliation agreement voluntarily to resolve the allegations before OFCCP issued a notice of violation. Pursuant to the agreement, the federal contractor will pay $1.925 million in back wages and interest to the affected employees and do the following:
- Conduct a compensation analysis for the affected groups.
- Make salary adjustments to remedy significant pay disparities based on gender, race and/or ethnicity.
- Review and revise its overall compensation system.
- Provide enhanced training to its managers to ensure future compliance.
- Analyze compensation annually for disparities.
“Our conciliation agreement with BNY Mellon Corp. will ensure that the federal contractor’s compensation policies and practices provide equal pay and will remedy discriminatory and unjustified pay gaps,” said Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Northeast Regional Director Diana Sen in New York.
BNY Mellon is the world’s largest custodian bank and securities services company with $2.4 trillion in assets under management and $46.7 trillion in assets under custody as of the second quarter of 2021.
BNY Mellon manipulated foreign exchange rates, breached its fiduciary duty to ERISA plans, exposed records of 12.5 million people in a security breach, violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and engaged in money laundering; but it has federal contracts with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
OFCCP launched the Class Member Locator to identify applicants or workers who may be entitled to monetary relief and/or consideration for job placement as a result of OFCCP’s compliance evaluations and complaint investigations.
If you think you may be eligible for back pay from this settlement or may know someone who is, please visit the Class Member Locator to learn more about this and other settlements.
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