The Detroit District Office of the EEOC brought this action in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, Southern Division, against Applegate Holding Co. LLC. The complaint, filed in September 2004, alleged sex and religious discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The complaint specifically alleged that Defendant subjected the charging party to unwelcome and offensive religiously-based material, harassed her based on her religion and subjected female employees to a hostile work environment based on their sex. Alleged events included Defendant stapling religious and biblical articles to the charging party's pay checks and making derogatory comments about women in the workplace.

In January 2005, Defendant moved for summary judgment. In May 2005, partial summary judgment was awarded to Defendant. The parties reached a settlement agreement and in January 2006 proposed a consent decree which was signed in April 2006. The decree, which was valid two years, for included non-discrimination and non-retaliation provisions and required Defendant to pay the class a total of $130,000.00, provide mandatory Title VII training to all of its employees, refrain from handing out any religious based material in the office, distribute an anti-discrimination policy to its employees, and post a non-discrimination notice in a conspicuous location at its facilities. The docket sheet does not show any further enforcement; the case was presumably closed in 2008.

Kevin Wilemon - 06/07/2007
- 06/12/2017


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