L.A. Enterprise Rent-a-Car to settle age discrimination charges

Enterprise Rent-A-Car Co. of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $425,000 to settle an age discrimination complaint filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The settlement is part of a three-year agreement among the EEOC, job applicants and the company to avoid litigation.

The EEOC said the complaint alleged that between 2008 and 2011, job candidates over the age of 40 were passed over for management trainee positions in Enterprise’s Burbank office.

An EEOC investigation found that no job candidates over the age of 40 were hired into the management trainee position during the three-year period. Ten candidates were not hired in favor of “less qualified, younger” applicants, according to a statement from the EEOC.

The agency also found that the Burbank office did not adequately maintain application records in accordance with federal law.

“Federal law requires that employers select the best qualified job candidates regardless of age,” Rosa Viramontes, district director of the EEOC’s L.A. district office, said in a statement.

Enterprise said the 10 job candidates were not hired because they were not qualified and that the Burbank office did not do anything wrong. The company agreed to the settlement “to avoid the time, effort and expense associated with further proceedings,” according to the statement.

Enterprise did not immediately comment.

As part of the settlement, Enterprise will redistribute its anti-discrimination policy to all employees in the Los Angeles area, provide training to staff that emphasizes preventing and addressing age discrimination and maintain an “appropriate” record-keeping system.

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