Accenture agrees to $25 million settlement with Department of Justice over its diversity efforts

Accenture and the Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to a $25 million settlement over alleged discriminatory employment practices this week.

The DOJ claimed that Accenture has violated the False Claims Act since 2017 by “taking race or sex into account when making hiring decisions” and when considering promotions, using aspirational workforce representation goals, according to the settlement. The DOJ also asserted that Accenture violated anti-discrimination rules by taking race and sex into account in decisions regarding employee leadership development and educational programs.

The company denies engaging in discrimination, with the settlement stating that it is “neither an admission of liability by Accenture, nor a concession by the United States that its claims are not well-founded.”

“A company cannot take taxpayer dollars, certify that it is following that simple principle, and then use race or sex as a factor in deciding who gets an opportunity,” Brett Shumate, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a statement.

Accenture still lists inclusion and diversity efforts publicly on its website, and via commitments to the LGBTQ+ community, disabled workers, faith-based initiatives, and refugees, among others. As of publication, the company did not respond to HR Brew’s request for comment regarding the future of these efforts.

“Accenture complies with applicable laws, and our resolution does not constitute an admission of liability,” Lara Wozniak, Accenture Americas media lead, told HR Brew in an email. “We have cooperated with the government’s review, and we are pleased to put this matter behind us to avoid the costs and resource demands of prolonged litigation.”

The settlement is the largest DEI-related False Claims Act suit to date, and follows similar deals made with IBM and Deloitte earlier this year, HR Brew reported previously.

“I just think we’re going to see many more of these settlements emerging over the next months and years,” David Glasgow, co-founder of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at New York University School of Law, told HR Brew in August, noting that the government’s anti-DEI campaign appears fixated on government contractors.

“Whether these claims had any foundation to them that the DOJ is making, it’s a really strong incentive on these parties to just settle and move forward because the consequences of fighting the federal government, fighting the claims in court, are that this administration could punitively rip away contracts from entities that they don’t like.”