EEOC Files Gender Discrimination Complaint Against Food Distributor
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a complaint
against Performance Food Group, Inc., alleging that it had a “standard operating
procedure of denying employment to female applicants for operative
positions in its [warehouse] facilities on the basis of their gender”; EEOC also
alleges that the defendant failed to promote a woman at its Maryland facility
on the basis of her gender. EEOC v. Performance Food Group, Inc., No. 13-1712
(D. Md., filed June 13, 2013). The defendant apparently distributes
food-related products to more than 130,000 independent and national
chain restaurants, theaters, schools, hotels, health care facilities, and other
institutions across the United States.
According to the complaint, the defendant unlawfully discriminated against
hiring women at multiple facilities since at least January 1, 2004, for warehouse
positions that required the operation of machinery and factory-related
processing equipment or were supervisory occupations. A corporate senior
vice president allegedly stated on several occasions that women could not
do warehouse work and asked “why would we waste our time bringing in
females.” He also allegedly expressed his displeasure when he saw women
working at the warehouses, saying it would be a good idea to get the females
“out of here.” EEOC claims that court-ordered data on the company’s hiring
practices “revealed a statistically significant shortfall of female operatives.
These shortfalls of females appeared in the overwhelming majority of individual
Broadline facilities for all Regions as well as the pooled results analyzed
throughout the relevant time period.” EEOC also claims, “A review and analysis
of static workforce data reveals [sic] that employment of female operative
workers at Defendant has been and continues to be less than that of Defendant’s
competitors in the relevant labor market.”
EEOC seeks permanent injunctive relief; an order requiring the defendant
to “institute and carry out policies, practices, and programs which provide
equal employment opportunities for females, and which eradicate the
effects of their past and present unlawful employment practices”; an order
making whole a woman denied a promotion to supervisor and a class of
female applicants and deterred applicants; back pay with interest; front pay;
“compensation for pecuniary and nonpecuniary losses, including emotional
pain, suffering, anxiety, depression, embarrassment, degradation, and humiliation”;
and punitive damages.
Issue 488
