Earlier this year, Stephen Nordness pledged “real-life changes” at his Alabama-based temp agency, Automation Personnel Services Inc.
Nordness was responding to a Reveal investigation that found rampant discrimination at his company, which provides temporary employees to industrial employers throughout the South. Whether Automation’s customers wanted only white workers or only Latinos, only men or only young people, the temp agency was happy to oblige, according to dozens of former employees. Black workers often were hit hardest by the illegal practice.
Just days after the story ran in The Birmingham News, Nordness, Automation’s president and CEO, vowed to get to the bottom of it by hiring an outside firm to investigate.
“I’m not someone that is going to look at this and try to sweep it under the carpet,” Nordness said in a January interview.
Last week, however, Automation’s vice president, Randy Watts, said the investigation had concluded and the results would “remain confidential.” He did not provide any details.
The company, Watts wrote in a short statement, “remains committed to hiring the most qualified workers available and contributing millions of dollars to local economies in the 33 locations we serve across the U.S.”
In March, Nordness wrote to Reveal that he was going to meet with the outside investigator shortly.
“After the meeting I will gladly give you a complete list of changes we have implemented,” he wrote.
Instead, Watts subsequently wrote by email, “We can say that we are reviewing and assessing our next steps and remain committed to being a first-in-class employer of choice and promoting a workplace that is free of discrimination and harassment.”
Michelle Clemon, a local human resources consultant hired by Automation, told Reveal that she did conduct an investigation but would not comment further.
After Reveal’s story, Automation also set up an employee complaint hotline through the Texas-based firm Employment Practices Solutions. The number is 1-800-837-6855. Automation did not respond to questions about the complaints it has received so far.
Will Evans can be reached at wevans@cironline.org. Follow him on Twitter: @willCIR.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Republish Our Content
Thanks for your interest in republishing a story from Reveal. As a nonprofit newsroom, we want to share our work with as many people as possible. You are free to embed our audio and video content and republish any written story for free under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 license and will indemnify our content as long as you strictly follow these guidelines:
-
Do not change the story. Do not edit our material, except only to reflect changes in time and location. (For example, “yesterday” can be changed to “last week,” and “Portland, Ore.” to “Portland” or “here.”)
-
Please credit us early in the coverage. Our reporter(s) must be bylined. We prefer the following format: By Will Evans, Reveal.
-
If republishing our stories, please also include this language at the end of the story: “This story was produced by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization. Learn more at revealnews.org and subscribe to the Reveal podcast, produced with PRX, at revealnews.org/podcast.”
-
Include all links from the story, and please link to us at https://www.revealnews.org.
PHOTOS
-
You can republish Reveal photos only if you run them in or alongside the stories with which they originally appeared and do not change them.
-
If you want to run a photo apart from that story, please request specific permission to license by contacting Digital Engagement Producer Sarah Mirk, smirk@revealnews.org. Reveal often uses photos we purchase from Getty and The Associated Press; those are not available for republication.
DATA
-
If you want to republish Reveal graphics or data, please contact Data Editor Soo Oh, soh@revealnews.org.
IN GENERAL
-
We do not compensate anyone who republishes our work. You also cannot sell our material separately or syndicate it.
-
You can’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually. To inquire about syndication or licensing opportunities, please contact Sarah Mirk, smirk@revealnews.org.
-
If you plan to republish our content, you must notify us republish@revealnews.org or email Sarah Mirk, smirk@revealnews.org.
-
If we send you a request to remove our content from your website, you must agree to do so immediately.
-
Please note, we will not provide indemnification if you are located or publishing outside the United States, but you may contact us to obtain a license and indemnification on a case-by-case basis.
If you have any other questions, please contact us at republish@revealnews.org.