A food distributor with warehouses in Cleveland, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, will pay $3.6 million to settle a class sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The EEOC alleged that Sherwood Food Distributors LLC, one of the largest independent distributors in the U.S. meat and food industry, discriminated against a class of female applicants at its warehouses in Cleveland and Detroit by refusing to hire them for entry-level positions because of gender. The practice goes as far back as 2009, the EEOC said.
Entry-level warehouse workers, also known as selectors or pickers, fulfill customer orders by collecting products from the warehouse storage systems, as described in the consent decree resolving the agency’s lawsuit. According to the company’s website, Sherwood operates distribution centers where products are stored in refrigerated warehouses. The agency also charged that Sherwood failed to make and preserve records related to the company’s alleged discriminatory hiring practices.
EEOC filed its lawsuit (EEOC v. Sherwood Food Distributors, LLC,Civil Action No. 1:16-cv-02386) on Sept. 27, 2016, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, in Cleveland after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
The suit was resolved by a five-year consent decree entered by Judge Donald C. Nugent on Oct. 16, 2018. Under the terms of the decree, Sherwood will pay $3.6 million to a class of females identified by the EEOC, and the company must offer jobs to at least 150 women identified by the agency during the claims process. The consent decree establishes hiring goals designed to increase the percentage of females hired for entry-level warehouse positions and maintain a higher representation of females in those positions over a period of years.
The decree also requires Sherwood to create and produce to the EEOC electronic data such as applicant flow logs, and to disclose the number of female and male applicants who seek entry-level warehouse positions, the number of females and males hired for such positions, and the company’s progress in meeting hiring goals. The EEOC will monitor Sherwood’s hiring practices and the company’s compliance with the decree for five years.
Source: EEOC
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