A trucking company that has hired just one woman driver since it opened a Mississippi terminal in 1986 — and fired her shortly afterward — will pay $490,000 and provide $120,00 in scholarships to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit, the agency said Wednesday.
Overland Park, Kansas-based USF Holland LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of YRC Worldwide Inc., fired the one female trucker it hired before she completed her first route at the Olive Branch, Mississippi, terminal, the agency said.
The EEOC said it discovered that “a significant number” of qualified women with extensive truck driving experience unsuccessfully applied for positions with USF Holland over the years.
The company was charged with violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Oxford, Mississippi.
In addition to paying the $490,000 settlement, USF Holland will award $10,000 scholarships four times under terms of the court-approved, three-year consent decree settling the lawsuit.
The company’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.
