Trucking company Western Distributing Transportation agreed to pay $919,000 and adhere to other measures to settle a case with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over alleged disability discrimination.
The case, filed in 2016, alleged the company violated labor regulations for terminating employees after they took medical leave, according to the EEOC. Western Distributing President and CEO Vieri Gaines signed a four-year consent decree last week that rejected the discrimination allegations while agreeing to pay damages and complying with third-party monitoring of employment records for several years.
Twenty-five percent of the fee will go toward back pay, with the remaining money covering compensatory damages to various aggrieved individuals. The U.S. government identified 58 individuals who were allegedly denied reasonable accommodation or terminated, according to the decree, and the EEOC will create a final list of those entitled to compensation within 60 days of executing the settlement.
"We are happy to put this chapter behind us and move forward — and we are just as dedicated as ever before to doing the right thing as we always have,” Gaines said in a news release last week.
The nearly decade-long lawsuit comes as Western Distributing, which reported 162 drivers as of last July, is closing in on its 100-year anniversary in 2033. With ties as a Coors’ distributor, the company’s long-haul division was formally established in 1977 and features refrigerated, armored and specialty hauling, according to the company.
A spokesperson for the company, Andy Boian, told Trucking Dive that there’s conflict between Labor Department and Department of Transportation policies. The company followed DOT rules in not allowing drivers to drive for the business even if a medical doctor allowed it, he said.
The settlement seeks to avoid further costs, disruption and delay, according to the consent decree, signed by both parties. “Western continues to deny liability on all claims and stands by its strong safety protocols and commitment to fair, lawful employment practices,” the release said.
The EEOC argued in its 2016 complaint that the business failed to make reasonable accommodations for individuals, including a driver who required open-heart surgery. That driver, who had a doctor seek to extend the worker’s Family and Medical Leave Act time off, sought reassignment as a yard hostler or dispatcher, the lawsuit said.
The company refused reasonable accommodations in connection with a Western Distributing employment policy, referred to as a “full duty” standard, that required employees to return to work without medical restrictions, per the lawsuit. The EEOC alleged the approach violated labor laws.
In a 2023 trial, a jury found the EEOC failed to prove two charges regarding a pattern of allegedly discriminating against and failing to accommodate qualified people with disabilities.
But the jury did find the business at fault with a charge that certain policies adversely impacted qualified people with disabilities, such as the company's “full duty” standard and other provisions requiring workers be able to push and pull 130 pounds of weight.
The EEOC sought a retrial for the two charges the jury cleared less than a month later.
“Despite this decisive ruling, the EEOC opted to continue pursuing dozens of individual claims in separate proceedings, a process that could have gone on for years and placed significant financial strain on the company,” Western Distributing said in its release last week.
Ultimately, the company said it sought a settlement to avoid a battle with an agency that had "virtually unlimited financial resources and an indefinite timeline that Western simply couldn't match."
To bring the case to a close, Western Distributing consented to several conditions. Among them, the business agreed to:
- Delete any mention of “full duty” in existing policies and “explain that there is no requirement that employees be fully healed or without restrictions in order to return to work,” with reasonable accommodation involving an interactive process and individualized assessment
- Expressly state that an up to 12-week family medical leave policy could be extended if appropriate as a reasonable accommodation
- Develop and maintain a management evaluation of compliance with equal employment opportunities within 60 days of executing the settlement and submit EEO reports on an annual basis
