LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced Nov. 15 that J.B. Hunt Transport Inc., one of the largest transportation logistics companies in North America, will pay $260,000 after allegations of race, national origin and religious discrimination.
According to EEOC, four East Indian Sikh applicants went through the application process with J.B. Hunt and were denied a religious accommodation when requesting a different accommodation to the company's hair sample drug testing policy. The company did not admit liability but agreed to a two-year conciliation agreement with EEOC and the alleged victims, a process that avoided litigation.
“J.B. Hunt has been cooperative in working with EEOC to resolve this charge without resorting to litigation,” said Rosa Viramontes, district director of EEOC's Los Angeles District. “We commend J.B. Hunt's willingness to revise its drug testing policy and take steps to make its hiring process more inclusive for qualified candidates regardless of race, national origin or religion.”
In addition to paying monetary fines, J.B. Hunt will make changes to its hiring practices and will offer conditional employment to the claimants in the case.
“Our clients repeatedly asked for alternatives within the drug testing regimes that would allow them to follow their religious tenets, and those requests were denied,” said the Sikh Coalition's legal director, Harsimran Kaur. “Thankfully J.B. Hunt has finally switched gears and moved into the right lane to comply with federal anti-discrimination law.”