Wells Fargo faces probe over minority interviews
Federal prosecutors in New York have opened a criminal investigation into whether Wells Fargo violated federal laws by conducting sham interviews of nonwhite and female job candidates, according to two people with knowledge of the inquiry.
The investigation is being conducted by members of a newly created civil rights unit inside the criminal division of the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office, the people said. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The investigation was spurred by a May 19 report in The New York Times that centered on a whistleblower, Joe Bruno. Bruno, a former Wells Fargo employee, and others said bank managers were interviewing job applicants whom the bank deemed "diverse" - a catchall term for racial minorities, women and members of other disadvantaged groups - for roles that had already been promised to other people.
These sham interviews were the result of the bank's quest to increase diversity - a noble goal that became twisted in practice because, some employees said, it was more about recording the bank's efforts to hire more minorities than actually hiring them.
The practice was tied to Wells Fargo's "diverse slate" policy, which stipulated that at least half the candidates interviewed for jobs paying $100,000 or more needed to be "diverse." The rule was put in place in 2020.
Labor board denies bid by Amazon over union
A federal labor board has denied Amazon's request to bar the public from a hearing on the company's bid to overturn a historic union win at one of its Staten Island, New York, warehouses.
Hearings by the National Labor Relations Board are typically held in person and open to the public. But the Seattle-based company filed a motion Tuesday arguing the agency should make the hearing on the Staten Island union vote private because it will be held over Zoom.
Amazon argued that a Zoom hearing makes difficult to know if witnesses who aren't supposed to observe the hearing are listening in, or whether the hearing is being recorded and shared with others, which the labor board prohibits. The hearing, which begins Monday, is expected to last several days.
On Thursday, Cornele Overstreet, a regional director with the NLRB field office who will oversee the hearing, denied the company's request. He wrote in a filing that the company hasn't "put forward any compelling reason" to depart from long-standing policy of holding public hearings.
"The Board's hearings are not secret. Accordingly, preventing the public from viewing its important processes is not an option," Overstreet wrote.
Jobless claims increase but fewer get benefits
More Americans applied for jobless aid last week, but the total number of Americans collecting unemployment remains at a five-decade low.
Applications for unemployment benefits rose by 27,000 to 229,000 for the week ending June 4, the most since mid-January, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time applications generally track the number of layoffs.
The four-week average for claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, rose by 8,000 from the previous week to 215,000.
The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits for the week ending May 28 remained unchanged from the previous week at 1,306,000, the fewest since Jan. 10, 1970.
Geico may have to pay for woman's STD claim
Geico could be required to pay a Missouri woman $5.2 million because she said she contracted a sexually transmitted disease while having sex in the car of a man who is insured by the company.
A three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a Jackson County Court's decision affirming an arbitrator's finding that the woman was entitled to the award. However, Geico has filed a federal lawsuit arguing the woman's claim is not covered by the man's insurance policy.
According to court documents, the woman, identified as M.O., and a man, who were in a relationship, had sex in the man's car. She contends she contracted HPV, human papillomavirus, because the man did not tell her he had the disease. HPV can cause cervical cancer, certain other cancers and genital warts.
- Compiled by Dave Flessner