Company refused to hire women as AL security officers, feds say. ‘Post is MALE ONLY!’
An Alabama security company will pay $1.6 million to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit accusing it of refusing to hire more than a dozen women who applied for security officer positions, federal officials said.
Security Engineers Inc., a Birmingham-based company, denied jobs to women with years of prior experience in security, law enforcement and the military, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The company and its attorneys didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ requests for comment on March 12.
One of the female applicants, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, had recently retired from her 25-year career with a state law enforcement agency and was licensed to carry a pistol in Alabama, an amended complaint filed by the agency says.
In court filings, attorneys representing the EEOC accused the company of sex discrimination, referring to “discriminatory directives” from its human resource database, the agency said in a March 10 news release.
According to the EEOC, the directives said:
“DO NOT schedule a female for this post” and “Post is MALE ONLY!”
When another female applicant was interviewed for a security officer position, she “was told that ‘nights and weekend shifts were generally given to the guys because those are scarier shifts,’” the EEOC’s attorneys wrote in the complaint.
She wasn’t hired by Security Engineers, according to the filing, which says she was told there were no job openings for her.
The company wanted to hire men who were equally or less qualified than the female applicants, according to the complaint.
Now, Security Engineers has agreed to provide other relief, in addition to paying $1.6 million to the group of women denied jobs, to settle the sex discrimination accusations, the EEOC’s news release said.
The settlement comes after the agency filed the lawsuit in September 2023, court records show.
“The work of the EEOC remains critically important to protect civil rights, expand equal opportunity and enforce federal employment antidiscrimination law, including obtaining, through the EEOC’s litigation program, court-ordered injunctive relief and remedies that benefit the public, job seekers and employees,” EEOC assistant regional attorney Kate Northrup said in a statement.
As part of a three-year consent decree, the EEOC said it will distribute the settlement money to the women who weren’t hired by Security Engineers.
Under the decree, the company is banned from discriminating against applicants and employees based on sex, according to the agency.
“The settlement further requires that Security Engineers delete all directives not to select, assign or hire women because of sex, and it provides for training, monitoring and reporting,” the agency said.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in employment, including sex discrimination.
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 10:39 AM with the headline "Company refused to hire women as AL security officers, feds say. ‘Post is MALE ONLY!’."
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