Waste Industries U.S.A. and several subsidiaries will pay $3.1 million and provide extensive injunctive relief to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The suit alleged that Waste Industries had systematically denied truck driver positions to qualified women.
According to the lawsuit, during the application and interview process female applicants were subjected to derogatory comments about their appearance, told that they would be taking a job away from a man, and were asked sexist questions such as, “Why would you want to do a man’s job?” Despite being fully qualified for the positions, women were rejected in favor of less qualified men, the EEOC said.
In addition to paying $3.1 million to the women who applied for and were unlawfully denied truck driver positions, Waste Industries must develop hiring, recruitment and outreach plans to increase the pool of qualified female driver applicants; train employees on legal bans against gender discrimination in hiring; maintain, post, and distribute certain anti-discrimination policies; and submit to EEOC monitoring.
What would a respectful workplace do?
Respectful workplaces know that talent comes in all genders, sizes, colors, ages, nationalities, sexual orientations, and disability statuses. They use broad recruiting strategies to get as many qualified applicants as possible and then employ smart interviewing techniques to identify the best candidates.
When hiring and promoting, you need to find top talent quickly and efficiently but without putting your company in legal jeopardy. In our Hiring the Best workshop, we’ll teach your managers how to screen resumes without creating legal risk, how to effectively use behavior-based questions, the legal framework for hiring including EEO laws and the 2025 rules on affirmative action, and much more. They’ll leave this half-day interactive session with a practical toolkit of questions for their very next interviews!
Our 2025 training dates are now available, so call 800-458-2778 or email us today for more information about Hiring the Best: Interview Training for Managers.
Information here is correct at the time it is posted. Case decisions cited here may be reversed. Please do not rely on this information without consulting an attorney first.
