Bass Pro settles suit over its hiring
Bass Pro Outdoor World, a sporting goods retailer with 82 stores, agreed to pay $10.5 million to settle a nationwide class action case brought in Houston by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which accused the outdoor outfitter of rejecting qualified black and Hispanic job applicants and retaliating against employees who objected to the alleged practice.
The money will go to compensate eligible black and Hispanic job seekers who were not hired, according to the agreement filed Monday in federal court in Houston. The proposed settlement has yet to be approved by U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison, who is overseeing the 6-year-old case.
Bass Pro, which has two stores in the Houston area, also agreed to establish a diversity office and find job candidates by participating in job fairs in minority communities and recruiting at colleges with significant minority populations. Bass Pro maintains that it did not engage in any unlawful activities based on race or
national origin nor in any retaliatory conduct, according to the agreement.
“The company is fully committed to the expansion of its ongoing efforts to attract a more diverse workforce,” according to a written statement from Bass Pro. A portion of the $10.5 million payment may be devoted to programs that engage innercity youth in outdoor activities.
The settlement comes as Bass Pro, of Springfield, Mo., looks to complete a $4 billion deal to acquire a rival, Nebraska-based Cabela’s.
Antitrust regulators at the Federal Trade Commission cleared the deal this month, but Bass Pro is still waiting for approval from banking regulators to the spinoff of Cabala’s banking operations, including its credit card business.
Rudy Sustaita, EEOC regional attorney, said he could not comment on the proposed deal until it is approved by Ellison. The agreement does not specify how many job applicants would share the $10.5 million or the expected value of each award.
If approved by Ellison, the agreement would end the long government investigation into the hiring practices at one of the nation’s most prominent outdoor outfitters.
It started a decade ago when a white manager at the Bass Pro Outdoor World store in Katy reported to the EEOC that she was fired when she complained to her boss about mistreatment of black job applicants and employees.
The EEOC built its case on evidence provided by her and other managers, eventually concluding that the company’s practice of not hiring minorities was part of a nationwide pattern. The EEOC analyzed Bass Pro’s hiring data and found that black employees were underrepresented in more than 95 percent of the stores, while Hispanic employees were underrepresented in more than 70 percent, according to court records.
A companywide policy of favoring whites and discriminating against minorities became known as “the Profile,” according to the EEOC’s amended 2014 lawsuit. “Only white applicants fit the Profile,” according to the complaint.
The EEOC also accused Bass Pro of destroying employment applications, according to court documents.
Bass Pro noted Monday that a critical element of the tentative agreement is an acknowledgment by the EEOC that allegations of discrimination against Bass Pro founder John Morris were found to be “false and without merit.” The EEOC had contended in 2013 and 2014 that Morris was the architect behind the company’s whiteonly “Profile,” according to court records.
As part of the agreement, the EEOC agreed to remove references to Morris in an amended complaint filed in federal court Monday.
Bass Pro was founded in 1972 by Morris in the back of his father’s liquor store in Springfield, according to the company’s website. Today, the stores draw more than 120 million shoppers annually and feature aquariums and lavish wildlife displays.
The company touts itself as a tourist attraction that can spawn other economic development and grew by aggressively seeking public funding to finance its stores.
At the time the EEOC lawsuit was filed in 2011, Bass Pro had received more than $500 million in taxpayer subsidies, according to the Public Accountability Initiative, a watchdog group in Buffalo, N.Y.
Bass Pro noted that the agreement it reached with the EEOC was similar to a nationwide deal the agency reached with Cabela’s in September 2015. Cabela’s agreed to improve its hiring and recruitment of minorities to resolve an EEOC charge that the 86-store chain failed to recruit and hire minorities.
With the EEOC lawsuit settled, Bass Pro said it can focus its full attention on merging with Cabela’s.