The owners of Landmark Dodge of Independence, Mo., will pay a total of $275,000 to two former HR employees and 14 spurned job applicants to settle a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The two HR professionals were subjected to a hostile work environment and forced to quit after attempting to discontinue a policy requiring that sales positions be offered only to men and office jobs only to women, according to an EEOC press release. The 14 applicants — eight men and six women — were identified in the course of the agency’s investigation.

Officials say the policy was set and enforced by ownership, which agreed to a five-year consent decree requiring the adoption of and companywide training on new hiring procedures in which the applicant’s sex is not considered.

“This consent decree ensures that future job applicants at Landmark Dodge will not be shut out of employment opportunities because of their sex,” EEOC St. Louis District Office Regional Attorney Andrea G. Baran writes in the release.

Read more at EEOC.gov