The Austin, Texas location of LandCare USA, LLC (the “Company”), a company providing landscaping services, recently entered into a conciliation agreement with the Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) to settle claims that the Company had discriminated in its hiring of females, and non-Hispanic applicants in its Laborer job group.  The Company has agreed to pay $100,000 in back pay to 361 affected class members and also to offer employment to 45 eligible class members of whom 12 are white, 15 are black and 9 are female.

Notably, the Company is no longer a covered federal contractor or subcontractor.  To address this fact, certain of the terms of the conciliation agreement only apply if the Company becomes a covered contractor again in the future.  For example, the conciliation agreement states that if the Company becomes a covered contractor the Company will revise its hiring policies, practices and procedures for the Laborer position.

This is the second conciliation agreement that the Company has entered into with the OFCCP in recent months.  In October, the Las Vegas, Nevada location of the Company entered into a conciliation agreement with OFCCP.  In that agreement, it agreed to pay $161,899 in backpay for alleged discrimination against non-Hispanic applicants for the Laborer Non-Driver position.  The Company also agreed to offer employment to eligible class members until 29 class members were hired into the Laborer Non-Driver positions.