Target will boost recruitment to older job seekers after settling civil rights case

Target has committed to boosting outreach to older job seekers in its online job postings, according to attorneys who brought a civil rights complaint against the company alleging discriminatory practices.

The retailer recently reached a settlement with the Communications Workers of America union, which in 2018 filed U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints against dozens of companies that post job ads on Facebook, accusing them of using the social media company's ad-targeting tools to discriminate against older job seekers. Most of those other cases are no longer pending, according to the union, suggesting they were either settled or dismissed.

Under the settlement, Target has agreed to include images of older workers in its job ads, to recruit on websites that focus on older people and to avoid asking potential employees about their age, college graduation date, or whether they are "digital native," attorneys for the plaintiffs said. The retailer also said it would ensure its social media ad targeting complies with the law. 

Read more: How to avoid ageism when recruiting new talent

"Age should play no role in any employment decision," said William Alvarado Rivera, a senior vice president for litigation at the AARP Foundation, which advocates for vulnerable Americans over 50 and helped represent the plaintiffs.

Target still maintains that its ad targeting did not violate the law, according to the plaintiff lawyers. Target did not immediately respond to an inquiry. Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms, which was not a defendant in the EEOC complaint, also did not immediately respond.

Facebook itself agreed in 2019 to no longer let advertisers target job or housing postings to specific age ranges or genders, settling several lawsuits and complaints brought by groups including CWA and the American Civil Liberties Union. CWA also settled suits, on undisclosed terms, with Amazon.com and T-Mobile U.S., which it had accused of using Facebook ads to discriminate.

Read more: How to prevent ageism from impacting your hybrid workforce

"The actions that Target is taking through this settlement show strong corporate leadership and a commitment to promoting equality in the workplace," said Peter Romer-Friedman, who represented CWA in the settlements with Target, Amazon, T-Mobile and Facebook. "These are just things that all employers should be doing to reach different types of diverse audiences all the time."

Romer-Friedman is currently representing a women truckers' organization in a separate EEOC complaint against Facebook, filed in December, which alleges that the company's algorithm discriminates based on age and gender in choosing which positions to advertise to various job seekers, replicating some of the same problems the earlier settlement was meant to address. Meta has said that it works to prevent bias and to make its ads more transparent.