Catherwood LibraryILR School

In a complaint filed against the Whirlpool Corporation yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor accused the appliance manufacturer of discriminating against more than 650 minority applicants in its hiring process at a Tulsa, OK factory, asking that the company be ordered to offer jobs and back pay to applicants passed over because of discrimination. The charges come after failed settlement attempts according tothe Labor Department, and stem from a multiple choice test used in the company's hiring process to test basic skills, and asked non-work-related information and eliminated a larger percentage of minority applicants than non-minority applicants. Whirlpool's status as a federal contractor supplying appliances to the government triggered the Labor Department's involvement in the case against the Michigan-based company that was sued in May 2002 for religious discrimination at a Tennessee plant.