This sound is generated automatically. Let us know if you have any feedback.
ONE the lawsuit claims Georgia-based affiliates of waste management company GFL Environmental for gender discrimination in driver hiring practices.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced last week that he had sued Waste Industries and TransWaste sites accusing businesses of systematically refusing to hire female drivers since at least 2016.
A separate lawsuit accuses Waste Pro in Florida of racial harassment and retaliation; at its location in Jacksonville, Florida. The EEOC said the company “subjected black employees to racial slurs and then retaliated against them for complaining about their behavior.”
Waste Pro Harassment Complaint
According to the EEOC complaint, two Waste Pro employees at its Jacksonville location routinely used racial slurs in front of black employees. In some cases, workers told a Black Haitian American to “go back to Haiti” and made other discriminatory comments. The EEOC alleges that the insults and harassment occurred on an “almost daily basis” and often took place in the presence of other employees.
The targeted employee reported the harassment multiple times to supervisors beginning in December 2021, but no corrective action was taken until March 2022, when a maintenance manager formally notified human resources, according to the complaint.
The employee who filed the complaint asked HR not to reveal his identity because he did not want to be the subject of retaliation by the two key co-workers who were harassing him. However, according to the complaint, HR disclosed his name to the two employees.
Shortly before a meeting where HR planned to discuss the discrimination issue with the full maintenance staff, the targeted employee found a stuffed monkey waving an American flag in his workplace, according to the EEOC. He reported the incident but said nothing was done.
In the weeks after the encounter, he said his harassers locked away essential equipment so he couldn’t access it, refused to contact him about repair schedules and made sure to leave the more difficult jobs to him, according to the EEOC complaint. Waste Pro did not take corrective action when the employee reported the issues to supervisors, and the employee resigned because he did not believe the company would intervene, the EEOC said.
Amy Shay, an attorney with Stovash, Case, Shay & Pearce, the firm representing Waste Pro, said the company “acted appropriately” when it investigated the harassment and took corrective action. Waste Pro “pride itself on treating its employees fairly and professionally and plans to vigorously defend against these allegations,” Shay said in an email.
Waste Pro has a diverse workforce with “a lot of career employees who stay with the company because the environment is positive,” he said.
GFL, Waste Industries and TransWaste allege gender discrimination
The EEOC has also filed suit against GFL and its subsidiaries Waste Industries and TransWaste Services in Georgia, illegally refused to hire women as truck drivers. According to the complaint, several women applied for truck driver positions at the company’s locations across the state, but despite being qualified for the roles, “they were systematically denied the positions in favor of less qualified male applicants,” the complaint said. EEOC in statement. GFL did not respond to a request for comment.
During the application and interview process, candidates were “subjected to derogatory comments about their feminine appearance,” asked why they “wanted a man’s job,” and asked if they could lift trash cans and handle strong odors and getting dirty. The EEOC alleges that the company has been discriminating against female applicants in this way since at least 2016.
The EEOC is asking the company to change its hiring policies and practices “to ensure that future hiring policies and practices of these employers are free of unlawful bias against women,” said Marcus Keegan, district attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta District. Office. in a statement.