DHL will pay $8.7 million to settle a federal lawsuit that accused the delivery company of discriminating against its Black drivers in the Chicago area, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently announced.
Filed by the EEOC in 2010, the complaint was brought on behalf of two dozen workers at DHL’s facilities in Lisle, Alsip and Franklin Park for conduct dating back to 2005. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago.
In the lawsuit, the EEOC charged that DHL assigned its Black employees to routes in neighborhoods with higher crime rates compared to those assigned to its white drivers. Black employees often witnessed crime and sometimes were victims of crime on their assigned routes, according to the complaint.
The suit said Black employees were given much heavier dock work, and DHL segregated its Black and white employees. Additionally, Black employees reported being assigned to move large, heavy packages, while their white counterparts were assigned the far less strenuous task of sorting letters.
As part of the settlement, DHL will pay $8.7 million to a group of 83 Black employees subjected to the alleged discriminatory conduct who chose to participate in the lawsuit. Twenty of these employees were represented by private counsel.
Former EEOC Commissioner Leslie Silverman was appointed by the court to monitor DHL’s compliance with the consent decree. The decree requires that DHL train its workforce on federal laws prohibiting race discrimination and provide periodic reports to Silverman and the EEOC on work assignments and complaints of race discrimination.
Silverman will review and oversee the progress of DHL’s complaint procedures, the quality of investigations DHL undertakes in response to complaints, and the status of all required training under the decree. She will also monitor whether work assignments are based on race. Silverman’s monitoring will last for a term of four years.
“In this case, the EEOC made no claim that Black workers were paid less than others or denied promotions,” said Gregory Gochanour, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Chicago District Office.
“However, segregating employees and giving them unequal work assignments based on their race is just as unlawful. Such practices should not occur in any workplace. We are confident that the measures put in place by the consent decree will ensure that DHL’s employees are treated equally going forward.”
Karla Gilbride, general counsel of the EEOC, said, “If an employer honors the requests of white workers to avoid certain parts of a city that are perceived as dangerous, but orders Black workers to continue working in those areas despite their concerns, the employer is telling Black workers that their lives and their safety concerns are valued less than the lives and concerns of their white co-workers. That is plainly unlawful, and the EEOC will oppose such conduct.”
“It was once commonplace in America for employers to segregate their employees by race,” added EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows. “Sixty years ago this July, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed racially segregated workplaces, although some employers still fail to get the message. As our new Strategic Enforcement Plan makes clear, the EEOC remains committed to vigorously enforcing the Civil Rights Act so that race-based job segregation becomes a thing of the past.”
Founded in 1969, DHL employs 600,000 workers in 220 countries and territories, according to its website.
