Two logistics and distribution companies will collectively pay $2 million to settle federal employment discrimination cases alleging that applicants were denied warehouse and other jobs because of their sex, race or national origin.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced Monday that Dallas-based warehousing and logistics management company Birchstone Management has agreed to pay $500,000 following an investigation into allegations that qualified women were rejected for pallet repair positions.
The settlement follows an announcement less than two weeks earlier involving Denver-based Mile Hi Companies. The food and paper products distributor agreed to pay $1.5 million to resolve a federal lawsuit alleging discriminatory hiring practices affecting Black, female and Afghan applicants.
Birchstone accused of excluding women from pallet repair positions
The EEOC said its investigation into Birchstone found that a qualified woman who applied for a pallet repairer position at the company’s Spokane Valley, Washington, facility was rejected solely because she was a woman.
According to the agency, the issue was not limited to that applicant or that facility. Since at least May 2020, Birchstone allegedly rejected other qualified female candidates for pallet repair positions at facilities in Spokane Valley; Amarillo and Houston, Texas; Lakewood, Washington; and Las Vegas.
The EEOC said the company instead hired men with comparable or fewer qualifications, or continued its search for male candidates.
The woman who filed the discrimination charge said she arrived prepared to prove that she could perform the job but was told the company hired only men. She said she hoped the case would encourage employers to stop treating occupations as either “women’s work” or “men’s work.”
Under the agreement, Birchstone will pay $55,000 directly to the woman who filed the charge. Another $445,000 will be placed into a settlement fund for other applicants who may have been affected.
The resolution was reached through the EEOC’s pre-litigation conciliation process and did not result from a lawsuit.
Birchstone also agreed to make broader changes to its employment practices. The company must revise its hiring and recruitment policies, train personnel involved in recruitment and hiring at several locations, conduct annual audits of its employment recordkeeping and report its compliance to the EEOC for two years.
Mile Hi settlement covers race, sex and national-origin allegations
The Birchstone agreement comes just days after the EEOC announced on Sept. 25 that Mile Hi Companies had agreed to a $1.5 million settlement in a federal discrimination lawsuit filed by the agency in 2024.
The Denver distributor was accused of discrimination based on race, sex and national origin and improper hiring practices.
Beginning in 2015, the EEOC alleged, Mile Hi denied employment opportunities to Black, female and Afghan applicants.
The agency said in its lawsuit that the company’s CEO instructed employees to restrict the percentage of Black applicants hired, to prohibit women from warehouse jobs and to cease hiring Afghan applicants for bakery jobs.
The EEOC also alleged the company’s human resources manager objected to those directives and was later subject to harassment before being terminated.
The agency filed the suit in September 2024 after failing to reach an agreement through its administrative conciliation process.
Mile Hi’s settlement is under a three-year consent decree. During that period, the company must also provide monetary relief to the former HR manager and affected applicants, revise its employment policies, and train its employees and managers on federal anti-discrimination requirements.
The company also has to keep records on job applicants and report periodically to the EEOC on its compliance efforts.
Women still struggle to get into transport
The two cases are part of a broader concern about women’s participation and retention in transportation, an industry where many jobs have traditionally been male dominated.
A 2024 research project by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) found several barriers for women entering trucking or trying to stay in the industry. Those challenges included negative stereotypes, workplace culture, poor facilities and gender-based harassment.
ATRI’s research included nearly 1,500 current and former truck drivers as well as interviews and focus groups with drivers, motor carriers and truck-driving schools. Women accounted for about half of the drivers who completed the survey.
Women reported experiencing 11 of the 12 problems studied more frequently than men, the researchers found. About 17% of women who responded said that they encountered harassment or discrimination on a daily basis – about twice the level reported by male drivers.
So the Birchstone and Mile Hi settlements are more than individual cases. They cite ongoing concerns about access for women and others to jobs in freight and logistics, in a sector still struggling to get past hiring and workplace barriers that have existed for a long time.
