Company refused to hire women as truck drivers since 1986, feds say. Now it’ll pay up
Several women who applied to work as truck drivers for a company’s Mississippi branch over the course of three decades were refused jobs — and men were hired instead, according to federal officials.
The company USF Holland LLC hadn’t hired female truck drivers at its facility in Olive Branch, Mississippi dating back to 1986. The first woman was hired in 2017 — but she was fired on her first day, a newly settled lawsuit filed in federal court says.
Her firing came before she could finish the first trucking route she was sent on, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the lawsuit.
Now Holland is settling charges of sex discrimination and agreeing to pay $490,000 and provide $120,000 in scholarships, agency announced in a June 21 news release.
McClatchy News contacted attorneys who represented the company in the case on June 22 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
The company will award $10,000 scholarships four times a year for the next three years to women who apply to obtain a truck driving certification through Holland’s apprenticeship program as part of a three-year consent decree, according to the EEOC.
“While the trucking industry is traditionally a male-dominated field, qualified female drivers do exist and are paving the way for more women to enter the field,” EEOC Trial Attorney Roslyn Griffin Pack said in a statement. “We are pleased Holland agreed to take proactive steps to not only train female drivers through its apprenticeship program, but to also hire those qualified female drivers for positions in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas.”
The lawsuit was initially filed against Holland in October 2020, court records show.
According to an amended complaint filed in the case in November, women weren’t hired going back until at least 1986 — except the one who was hired then quickly fired in 2017 — through 2022 at the company’s Olive Branch location.
Federal officials said they learned many qualified women applied for job openings with Holland because of the company’s “impressive benefits package.”
By not hiring the women who applied for work, the EEOC accused Holland of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes sex discrimination illegal under federal law.
Holland has also agreed to revise company policies on anti-discrimination and to hold yearly training sessions to prevent future discrimination at the Olive Branch facility, the agency said.
Olive Branch is on the Mississippi-Tennessee border, about 20 miles southeast of Memphis.
This story was originally published June 22, 2023 at 9:36 AM with the headline "Company refused to hire women as truck drivers since 1986, feds say. Now it’ll pay up."
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