BaronHR Lawsuit: $2.2M EEOC Settlement and Radiant Services

The BaronHR lawsuit was a federal hiring discrimination case brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against BaronHR, LLC, an Anaheim-based national staffing agency, and its commercial laundry client Radiant Services Corp. BaronHR agreed in April 2024 to pay $2.2 million to settle claims that it had screened job applicants by race, national origin, sex, and disability to satisfy its client’s preferences. A separate $1.1 million settlement with Radiant brought the total recovery for affected workers to $3.3 million.¹

What the EEOC Alleged

The EEOC filed suit on September 13, 2022, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, naming BaronHR and Radiant Services as co-defendants in EEOC v. Radiant Services Corp., BaronHR, LLC, et al. (Case No. 2:22-cv-06517-GW-RAO).² The case followed Commissioner’s Charges and an unsuccessful pre-litigation conciliation.³

At the heart of the complaint was a pattern-or-practice claim. Since at least 2015, the EEOC said, BaronHR had failed to recruit, refer, and hire Black, Asian, and white non-Hispanic applicants for low-skill positions, producing a workforce at its client sites that skewed heavily Hispanic and Latino.² The agency’s theory was that BaronHR was carrying out the discriminatory preferences of Radiant Services, a Southern California laundry company serving the hospitality industry.¹

The alleged sorting reached beyond race. The EEOC said Radiant requested male workers for heavy lifting and female workers for lighter tasks such as folding and ironing, and that BaronHR complied by steering candidates accordingly.⁴ The complaint also charged disability discrimination, alleging that BaronHR screened out applicants with a current or prior medical condition or injury history to meet Radiant’s demand for “only physically fit workers.”² The EEOC cited violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

EEOC regional attorney Anna Park later framed the case as a warning against outsourcing bias. “Employers cannot hide behind staffing agencies to carry out their discriminatory hiring preferences,” she said.⁵ EEOC guidance dating to 1997 treats staffing firms and their clients as joint employers, each responsible for compliance with anti-discrimination law.⁶

The $2.2 Million Settlement

On April 8, 2024, U.S. District Judge George Wu entered a consent decree resolving the EEOC’s claims against BaronHR. The company agreed to pay $2.2 million into a settlement fund without admitting liability.³ The EEOC’s fiscal year 2024 annual report described the deal as a seven-year consent decree barring BaronHR from discriminating on the basis of national origin, race, sex, disability, or retaliation if it ever resumes operations.⁷

If BaronHR reopens, the decree requires it to retain an independent third-party monitor, run mandatory anti-discrimination training for staff, establish formal channels for applicants and employees to report discrimination, and revise its anti-discrimination policies to explicitly prohibit discriminatory hiring. Those obligations are contingent because BaronHR told the court in a January 2024 filing that it no longer had any employees and had ceased functioning as a staffing firm.⁸

Who Can File a Claim

The $2.2 million fund is being distributed through a claims process administered by CPT Group, Inc. Anyone who applied for temporary work through BaronHR or its affiliates Titan Personnel, Hunter Staffing, or Legendary Staffing after May 1, 2015, and was not referred or assigned to a job was eligible to file a claim.³

No supporting documentation was required beyond the CPT ID and passcode provided in the court-ordered notice mailed to potential class members. Approved claimants receive a pro rata share of the fund by paper check.⁹ The filing deadline was extended to October 10, 2025.

The Radiant Services Half of the Case

The EEOC pursued Radiant Services separately within the same lawsuit. On August 6, 2024, Judge Wu entered a second consent decree under which Radiant agreed to pay $1.1 million to workers who were deterred from applying or denied hire at its Gardena, California, laundry facility.⁵ Combined with the BaronHR fund, total recovery for class members reached $3.3 million.

Radiant’s decree required the company to develop a recruitment plan with hiring goals for non-Hispanic workers based on the local labor pool, designate an internal EEO coordinator, put in place anti-discrimination policies with centralized complaint tracking, and provide training in English and Spanish for management, non-management, and HR staff. The EEOC will monitor Radiant’s recruitment and hiring going forward.⁵

What Happened to BaronHR

BaronHR filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on April 5, 2024, three days before the consent decree was entered, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California (Case No. 8:24-bk-10873-SC). The bankruptcy was dismissed on April 23, 2024, for failure to file required schedules and statements, and the case was closed the next day.¹⁰ At its peak, BaronHR operated at least 29 offices across California.¹¹ The EEOC’s fiscal year 2024 annual report stated flatly that “BaronHR is no longer in business.”⁷

The Owner’s Federal Tax Case

BaronHR’s owner, Luis E. Perez, faced a separate federal criminal case. He pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion and one count of aiding in the preparation of a false tax return. According to his plea agreement, Perez controlled a network of staffing entities, including BaronHR LLC, BaronHR West Inc., Checkmates Staffing Inc., Staffaide Inc., and Fortress Holding Group LLC, and failed to remit tens of millions of dollars in payroll taxes withheld from workers’ paychecks.¹²

By February 2017, the balance owed to the IRS had reached $29.6 million. Perez admitted concealing his personal wealth by buying luxury vehicles, including a Ferrari, a Rolls-Royce, a Lamborghini, and a boat, through business accounts and titling them in company names or in the names of other people. He also told IRS revenue officers he earned only $1,000 a week from BaronHR while secretly routing additional money to himself through payments to his wife.¹²

Even after his plea, while on pretrial release, prosecutors said Perez caused BaronHR West to underreport employee wages by roughly $130.9 million, producing an additional $29.6 million in unpaid federal employment taxes.¹² On May 22, 2025, Perez was sentenced to 96 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $38,052,767 in restitution.¹³

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HR Dive. Radiant Services Settles Hiring Discrimination Claim With EEOC
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EEOC. EEOC Sues BaronHR and Radiant Services for Discriminatory Recruitment and Hiring
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EEOC. BaronHR to Pay $2.2 Million in EEOC Hiring Discrimination Lawsuit
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Legal Dive. BaronHR Settles EEOC Hiring Discrimination Lawsuit
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EEOC. Radiant Services to Pay $1.1 Million in EEOC Hiring Discrimination Lawsuit
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EEOC. Enforcement Guidance: Application of EEO Laws to Contingent Workers Placed by Temporary Employment Agencies
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EEOC. Office of General Counsel Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Report
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Staffing Industry Analysts. Staffing Firm to Pay $2.2 Million in EEOC Lawsuit
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EEOC v. BaronHR Settlement. EEOC v. BaronHR Settlement
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Inforuptcy. Bankruptcy Case Baron HR LLC
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Indeed. BaronHR Locations in CA
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U.S. Department of Justice. Owner of Orange County Staffing Companies Pleads Guilty to Tax Crimes
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U.S. Department of Justice. Owner of OC Staffing Companies Sentenced to 8 Years in Prison for Tax Crimes