Yellow Corp. subsidiary USF Holland will pay $490,000 to settle an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit that alleged the company discriminated against truck driver applicants based on sex.
The EEOC alleged USF Holland failed to hire female truck drivers at a terminal in Olive Branch, Mississippi, beginning when the terminal opened in 1986 to as recently as 2022.
In December 2022, USF Holland denied the discrimination allegations in a response to the complaint, stating that it did not engage in any unlawful employment practices. Parent company Yellow did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
An amended EEOC complaint listed nearly two dozen women who allegedly were not hired by the Yellow subsidiary due to their sex between 2015 and 2022, despite being qualified for truck driver positions.
“The EEOC charged that it failed since [1986] to hire any female drivers at the terminal, except for one female whom Holland hired and fired before she completed her first route,” the agency said Wednesday.
The EEOC stated a significant number of qualified women with extensive truck driving experience applied for jobs with USF Holland over the years because of the company’s impressive benefits’ package. But, “even when the women’s qualifications were equal or superior to those of male applicants, Holland failed to hire them,” the agency said in its release.
USF Holland employed over 100 drivers at the Olive Branch location as of May 2016, the EEOC wrote in its complaint. “All those drivers employed in May 2016 were males. None were females,” according to the agency.
Under the terms of the settlement agreement, USF Holland will also establish a $120,000 scholarship fund to help female applicants enroll in the company’s truck driver apprenticeship program.
The scholarships will cover program tuition, wages, lodging, meals and other costs for qualified applicants who are women to USF Holland’s truck driver apprenticeship program. Four $10,000 scholarships will be granted a year for female applicants seeking to obtain their truck driver certifications, according to the EEOC.
The EEOC and USF Holland agreed on the settlement to resolve the matter and avoid the added expense of continued litigation, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, which oversaw the case, wrote.
As part of the settlement, the carrier must provide anti-discrimination policy statements to all employees at the Olive Branch location within 30 days of the June 16 court order and provide training to employees at the site involved in hiring.
In addition, USF Holland must revise its hiring protocols at the terminal, adding “photographs of and testimonials from employees, including women truck drivers.” The company must also make sure its job descriptions include “minimum qualifications for each position, accurately reflecting the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for each” and work with groups like the Women In Trucking Association to collaborate on recruitment efforts.
