By Ron Zeitlinger | The Jersey Journal
The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. has agreed to pay nearly 200 women, Black and Latino employees at a Jersey City office more than $1.9 million in back wages after the financial institution was accused of discriminating against them, Department of Labor officials said.
A routine compliance review by the federal agency’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) found BNY Mellon discriminated against 120 female workers in investment services technology positions and 47 Black and 26 Hispanic workers in its technology services group from Dec. 1, 2016, to Dec. 1, 2017.
The OFCCP determined the company paid the female employees less than their male counterparts in similar positions, and paid the Black and Hispanic workers less than their Asian counterparts in similar positions, officials said.
Those actions are a violation of Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating in employment decisions based on race, color, religion, s-x, se-ual orientation, gender identity or national origin.
BNY Mellon, the world’s largest custodian bank and securities services company, has federal contracts with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
BNY Mellon entered into a conciliation agreement voluntarily to resolve the allegations before OFCCP issued a notice of violation. Pursuant to the agreement, the federal contractor will pay $1.925 million in back wages and interest to the affected employees.
“Our conciliation agreement with BNY Mellon Corp. will ensure that the federal contractor’s compensation policies and practices provide equal pay and will remedy discriminatory and unjustified pay gaps,” said Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Northeast Regional Director Diana Sen in New York.
The firm will also conduct a compensation analysis for the affected groups, make salary adjustments to remedy significant pay disparities based on gender, race and/or ethnicity, review and revise its overall compensation system, provide enhanced training to its managers to ensure future compliance and analyze compensation annually for disparities.