EEOC Suit Against DHL For Segregating Drivers by Neighborhoods

The U.S.Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a race discrimination lawsuit against DHL Express Inc. on behalf of a class of African-American employees who were given different job assignments because of their race. Twenty or more charges of discrimination against DHL alleging the shipping and delivery giant discriminated against black workers were received by the EEOC.

An EEOC administrative investigation was conducted under the supervision of Chicago District Director John Rowe, who said the EEOC’s investigation found DHL assigned black drivers to predominately black neighborhoods and white drivers to predominately white neighborhoods. “While this may not have been obvious to employees at first, over time, a pattern of segregation emerged,” said Rowe.

The EEOC’s administrative investigation also found DHL assigned more difficult and dangerous work to black employees than to white employees. Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.

John Hendrickson, the EEOC’s regional attorney in Chicago, added, “Any employer who gives different work assignments to employees simply because of the color of their skin, sends a message to all of its employees that it is by no means colorblind. The concept of ‘separate but equal’ has long since been rejected. It has absolutely no place on the job. Everyone should understand that federal law — Title VII — expressly forbids the segregation of employees. In this case, as with all of our other cases, the EEOC is looking to ensure that all employees can work in an environment free of discrimination.”