Personnel Staffing Inc., which provides staffing services in more than 15 southeastern states, will pay $155,000 to a class of female employees to resolve EEOC allegations that the company discriminated against women between August 2020 and August 2023. The agency found that Personnel Staffing violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to refer female temporary workers to TCI of Alabama LLC's Pell City, Alabama location after TCI made sex-biased requests for male-only laborers.
"A reminder to employers: Title VII makes it unlawful for an employer to fail or refuse to hire an individual or otherwise treat them differently because of their sex. Staffing agencies can violate Title VII if they comply with a client company's discriminatory request," said Bradley A. Anderson, director of the EEOC's Birmingham District Office. The EEOC determined that Personnel Staffing's compliance with TCI's discriminatory hiring preferences constituted unlawful sex discrimination under federal law.
Beyond the monetary settlement, Personnel Staffing agreed to comprehensive remedial measures including revising and disseminating its anti-discrimination policy to instruct employees about their rights and reporting procedures. The company must also provide annual training to managers and employees on discrimination and retaliation, along with other injunctive relief designed to prevent future discriminatory conduct.
The settlement is part of a broader EEOC enforcement initiative targeting discriminatory practices in the staffing industry. The agency has already settled a retaliation lawsuit against TCI and continues prosecuting two related enforcement actions: a sex discrimination case against TCI filed in January 2025 and a separate sex discrimination lawsuit against WorkSmart Staffing filed in September 2025, both in federal court in Alabama.
"We commend Personnel Staffing, Inc. for its cooperation and undertaking measures to ensure that its employees are not treated differently based on their sex in the future," Anderson said. The Birmingham District Office, which has jurisdiction over Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle, reached the settlement through the EEOC's pre-litigation conciliation process.
The case highlights ongoing EEOC scrutiny of staffing agencies that accommodate client companies' discriminatory hiring preferences. The commission has emphasized that temporary staffing firms cannot shield themselves from liability by claiming they were merely following client instructions when those instructions violate federal anti-discrimination laws.