Trucking company to pay $5.5M for not hiring qualified female drivers

A nationwide trucking company will pay $5.5 million to settle a sex discrimination claim for refusing to hire qualified female drivers for the past 10 years. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced the resolution in a May 15 press release. The money will go to the four original complainants and a class of other qualified female truck drivers who applied but weren’t hired.

The EEOC lawsuit alleged that the trucking company, based in Michigan, repeatedly passed over qualified female truck driver applicants throughout the U.S. Instead, the company often hired male truck drivers, many of whom were less qualified or had less experience. Many female applicants reported that company personnel across the country subjected them to different hiring procedures than those used for male applicants.

Several female driver applicants also saw the trucking company throwing their job applications in the trash at local truck terminals, according to the lawsuit. Further, at a West Virginia truck terminal, the dispatcher informed a female applicant that corporate offices had instructed him not to hire any female truck drivers.

In addition to monetary relief, the company must allow affected applicants to apply for positions and take part in the company’s recruitment and hiring processes free from sex-based discrimination and retaliation for participating in the lawsuit.

The company will also:

• Hire an outside consultant to review its hiring policies, practices, and procedures to ensure full compliance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964;
• Institute training on its anti-discrimination policies, including training on its recordkeeping obligations and the filing of EEO-1 reports as required by current law; and
• Appoint someone to review and verify the implementation of the settlement terms, and report on compliance to the EEOC.

Key to remember: It’s illegal for employers to reject qualified women for jobs based on their sex. A trucking company now owes steep fines because of such violations.