The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a lawsuit against Sheetz accusing the convenience store chain of engaging in racially discriminatory hiring practices.
The EEOC is an independent government agency charged with enforcing “federal laws against workplace discrimination.” Of note, they filed the federal suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Northern Division, on the exact same day that President “Biden stopped at a Sheetz market on a western Pennsylvania campaign swing, buying snacks, posing for photos and chatting up patrons and employees,” NBC News reports.
The lawsuit alleges that Sheetz “violated federal law by denying employment to a class of job applicants because of their race.”
The large chain currently has more than 600 locations operating out of six states. In order to get hired at Sheetz, all job applicants were screened to check for any criminal convictions on their records. This knowledge was then used to deny employment based upon their findings. The exact number of how many applicants have been impacted has not been listed, but the EEOC did say that these “unlawful hiring practices date to at least 2015.”
According to the lawsuit, these “hiring practices disproportionately screened out Black, Native American/Alaska Native and multiracial applicants.” The EEOC is not contending that there were racial motivations to discriminate, but these practices were in violation of certain Title VII provisions “that prohibit disparate impact discrimination.”
In layman’s terms, while this policy may have appeared neutral on its face, it had “a negative impact on a specific protected class of persons.”
The independent agency started its investigation into Sheetz after two job applicants filed complaints with the agency. The EEOC found that there was a marked difference in the hiring process for applicants based upon race. “Black job applicants were deemed to have failed the company’s criminal history screening and were denied employment at a rate of 14.5%, while multiracial job seekers were turned away 13.5% of the time and Native Americans were denied at a rate of 13%.”
The goal of the lawsuit is “to force Sheetz to offer jobs to applicants who were unlawfully denied employment and to provide back pay, retroactive seniority and other benefits.”
In a press release, Debra M. Lawrence, EEOC Regional Attorney said, “Federal law mandates that employment practices causing a disparate impact because of race or other protected classifications must be shown by the employer to be necessary to ensure the safe and efficient performance of the particular jobs at issue.”
“Even when such necessity is proven, the practice remains unlawful if there is an alternative practice available that is comparably effective in achieving the employer’s goals but causes less discriminatory effect,” continued Lawrence.
Following the lawsuit, the convenience store has doubled down on emphasizing their commitment to Diversity & Inclusion (D&I). Sheetz’s public relations manager Nick Ruffner said, “Sheetz does not tolerate discrimination of any kind. Diversity and inclusion are essential parts of who we are…We take these allegations seriously. We have attempted to work with the EEOC for nearly eight years to find common ground and resolve this dispute. We will address the claims in court when the time comes.”
After a failure to settle during the pre-litigation period, this case will be heading to the courts.