GFL and EEOC Finalize Consent Decree Over Lawsuit Claiming They Wouldn’t Hire Female Driver

In 2023, the EEOC sued GFL alleging that the Georgia company refused to hire female drivers. Currently, GFL and the EEOC are in the process of finalizing a consent decree which would bring to a close the case that began in 2023. According to the lawsuit, GFL, along with its subsidiaries, Waste Industries U.S.A., Waste Industries Atlanta, and TransWaste Services routinely refused to hire qualified female applicants for truck driver positions. Instead, the lawsuit alleges that companies gave jobs to less qualified male applicants. The EEOC and GFL announced on August 12 that they had “reached an agreement in principle.” The U.S. District Court of Georgia’s Atlanta division will close the case unless either the EEOC or GFL requests the case to remain open within 60 days.

The EEOC claims that GFL has been discriminating against female employees since they purchased Waste Industries in 2018. Allegations brought forth in the lawsuit centered mainly on one job applicant. This applicant said she experienced numerous roadblocks to getting hired in 2018. The suit claimed that this appliance had a valid commercial driver’s license and more than five years of driving experience. According to the lawsuit, the job required a minimum of three years of driving experience. The female applicant reported that the operating manager in charge of her job interview told her that she “would be taking the job away from a man.”

Upon investigation, the EEOC discovered that multiple other female applicants had experienced similar issues when applying at the defendant’s companies. The EEOC contended that these applicants “were subjected to derogatory comments about their feminine appearance” or asked why they would want a “man’s job.” Women who applied for these positions were also asked if they could lift trash bins and handle strong odors, getting dirty, and other such questions, according to the court filings.

According to the lawsuit, the defendant’s company “always [has] open driver positions due to high turnover, [and its] hiring process is uniform across all branches in Georgia.” Despite that, however, the company displayed “statistically significant” hiring shortfalls when it came to females in driver positions.

GFL had initially attempted to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that the EEOC could not prove that GFL and its subsidiaries “behaved as a single entity.” The company also hoped to narrow the scope of the lawsuit to the single applicant named by the EEOC in the suit. The court denied both motions.

The consent decree will likely call for GFL to educate its employees on Title VII protections including sex-based discrimination in hiring. The EEOC will also oversee any complaints filed by female employees regarding employment discrimination.

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Source:

wastedive.com/news/gfl-eeoc-sex-discrimination-lawsuit-women-driver-applicants/724968/