US Foods pays $116,000 in back wages, offers jobs as part of discrimination resolution
US Foods will pay $116,000 in back pay and interest, as well as offer jobs to 10 eligible applicants, to settle allegations of gender discrimination in hiring at two Florida facilities and a South Carolina facility.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs accused US Foods of discriminating against 150 women who applied to be selectors in Tampa; Port Orange; and Lexington, South Carolina. Officially, the agreement allows US Foods to avoid admitting “any violation of or noncompliance with any laws or any other wrongdoing whatsoever...”
According to US Foods’ LinkedIn entry for a night selector in Port Orange, “The selector position is a material handling, labor intensive job which processes work orders in the warehouse by manually selecting the correct products from the racks, palletizing them and delivering the merchandise to the dock secured and shrink wrapped for delivery in a safe and efficient manner. Considerable strength and endurance is required to safely and successfully perform the job.”
The early resolution conciliation agreement says after interviews and personnel record looks, Labor found the “statistically significant differences in the hiring rates “between men and women” were “based on sex and not based on legitimate differences in qualifications.”
In Tampa, none of the four women applicants were hired. Labor said five more women should have been hired in Port Orange, where 50 women applied, and Lexington, where 96 women applied.
The back pay and interest will be distributed among the aforementioned applicants who sign and return interest and release forms, which can be found on page 20 here. If all 150 return forms, each person would get $773.33.
As far as the jobs, five positions in each of the Lexington and Port Orange locations will be offered to previous interested applicants as they become available.
This story was originally published August 8, 2019 at 8:41 AM.
