©2024 Seyfarth Shaw LLP EEOC-INITIATED LITIGATION: 2043 EDITION | 33 EEOC vs. Simply Slims, L.L.C., and or Dixie Chicken, L.L.C. d/b/a Slim Chickens Civil Action No. 6:23cv-06090 (W.D. Ark.) The EEOC filed a lawsuit against the Defendant alleging teens and young adults were subjected to sexual harassment and a sexually hostile work environment. The Complaint alleges that a shift manager made inappropriate sexual comments to a young female who immediately reported the comments to the general manager. Though the Company received notice of the sexual harassment, the Company failed to address the harassment and the shift manager continued to harass other young female employees, including teenagers. The shift manager would brush up against the girls intentionally, rub their shoulders, and poke them in inappropriate places. He fondled the breast of one young female, touched one on her bottom, and placed his hand on the inner thigh of another. Eventually, the sexual harassment forced several of the employees to resign. KEY SETTLEMENTS SECURED IN FY 2023 EEOC v. USF Holland, LLC, Civil Action No. 3:20-cv-00270 (N,D. Miss.) The EEOC and the Defendant, a less-than-truckload carrier, resolved a Title VII lawsuit brought by the EEOC that alleged that the company’s Olive Branch, Mississippi branch had only hired one female driver since 1986, whom they terminated before her first route. The EEOC also alleged that the company had failed to hire qualified female applicants who applied over the years as drivers. The company agreed to pay $490,000.00 to settle the suit. Pursuant to a three-year Consent Decree, the company will establish a $120,000 scholarship fund. The Defendant will award the scholarships four times annually for $10,000 each throughout the duration of the decree to female applicants who seek to obtain their truck driver certifications through the company’s truck driver apprenticeship program, revise its anti‑discrimination policy and conduct annual training designed to prevent discrimination at its Olive Branch, Mississippi facility. EEOC v. Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, Civil Action No. 3:2021-cv-00753 (M.D. Tenn.) The Defendant, a construction management and general contracting company, settled a Title VII lawsuit with the EEOC in which the EEOC alleged the company subjected black workers to a racially hostile work environment, then fired them after they complained. The Defendant will pay $1.2 million to a class of black former workers. Pursuant to a two-year Consent Decree, the company is required to incorporate a strict prohibition against racial graffiti, racial jokes, racial slurs, racial epithets, and hate symbols into its anti-harassment policy, assign an EEO liaison to each of its construction sites and conduct semi-annual training on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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