Trucking company to pay $1.25M to settle EEOC sex bias suit

An Ohio-based nationwide trucking company will pay $1.25 million to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit filed against it by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in which it was charged with discriminating against women loaders, the agency said Tuesday.

The EEOC said in its statement that although Wilmington, Ohio-based R&L Carriers Inc. and its units, which specialize in less-than-a load deliveries, hired a few women as loaders, most female applicants were rejected or steered to different positions because of their sex.

The trucking company was charged with violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the lawsuit filed against it in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. R&L Carriers Shared Services LLC et al. The lawsuit covered the period of Jan. 1, 2010, through Dec. 31, 2017.

The EEOC said the litigation was filed after an unsuccessful attempt to reach a voluntary pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.

Under the consent decree resolving the suit, the settlement fund will be handled by a claims administrator paid for by R&L carriers.

“Sex discrimination is illegal and will not be tolerated,” said Kenneth Bird, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Indianapolis district office, in the statement.

“Employers should be on notice the EEOC will act aggressively to protect people from this type of discrimination. Employers cannot hire women for only some positions while excluding them from other positions.”

The trucking company’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.