Stan Koch and Sons Trucking must pay $500,000 to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit.
Stan Koch and Sons Trucking was ordered earlier this week to fork over $500,000 and other relief to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. Before the suit was filed, the federal agency first tried to reach a pre-litigation settlement via its conciliation process, but those efforts failed.
According to the suit, Koch’s “use of the CRT Test, an isokinetic strength test developed by Davenport, Iowa-based Cost Reduction Technologies, Inc., discriminated against women truck drivers because of their sex.” The agency also argued that the “CRT Test disproportionately screened out women who are qualified for truck driver positions at Koch.”
This type of discrimination is in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which “prohibits workplace discrimination, including the use of employment practices that have a disparate impact on women because of their sex and that are not job-related and consistent with business necessity.”
It’s worth noting that, just recently, the EEOC won a case filed for similar reasons against Schuster Co., a trucking company based in Iowa. That suit was filed over the use of the “same physical abilities test.”
Right before the recent settlement announcement, a federal judge ruled against Stan Koch and Sons Trucking. The judge found “that the test disproportionately screened out women who had been given conditional offers of hire by Koch to work as truck drivers or who were already employed by the company and were required to take the test to return to work following an injury.” On top of that, the judge ruled that “Koch did not present evidence to show that the test was job-related and consistent with business necessity.”
The five-year consent decree resolving the lawsuit was approved on December 6 by Magistrate Judge Hildy Bowbeer. As part of the agreement, Koch must “pay $500,000 in monetary damages and make job offers to a class of women whose job offers were revoked by Koch after they failed the CRT test.” Additionally, the agreement prevents “Koch from using the CRT test, and, if it chooses to use any other physical abilities test that has a disparate impact on female drivers, it must first demonstrate that the test is job-related for the position in question and consistent with business necessity.” Lastly, the decree also requires the company to regularly report to the EEOC of its hiring practices for the next five years.
Sources:
Minnesota Trucking Company to Pay $500,000 Settlement over Sex Discrimination Lawsuit
Minnesota trucking company to pay out $500K after using ‘strength tests’ to screen out women drivers
Join the conversation!