Sheetz faces lawsuit, accused of employment discrimination against people of color

BALTIMORE, Md. (WTAJ) — Convenience store, restaurant and gas station chain Sheetz, headquartered in Altoona, Pa., is being accused of discriminating against people of color during their hiring process.

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a federal agency, accused Sheetz of violating federal law by denying employment to a class of job applicants because of their race.

According to the lawsuit, Sheetz has a longstanding practice of screening job applicants for criminal records and then denying employment based on those records. The EEOC believes that the Sheetz hiring practices disproportionately screened out Black, Native American/Alaska Native, and multi-racial applicants.

It should be noted that the lawsuit does not allege that Sheetz was motivated by race when making hiring decisions.

The EEOC claims that Sheetz’s companywide hiring process across all 670+ stores violates provisions of Title VII, which prohibits:

“Facially neutral employment practices that cause a discriminatory impact because of race when those practices are not job-related and consistent with business necessity or where alternative practices with less discriminatory impact are available.”

Basically, The EEOC said that employment practices causing an impact because of race or other protected classifications must be shown by the employer — Sheetz in this case — to be necessary for the safe and efficient performance of the particular jobs.

“Even when such necessity is proven, the practice remains unlawful if there is an alternative practice available that is comparably effective in achieving the employer’s goals but causes less discriminatory effect,” EEOC Regional Attorney Debra M. Lawrence said in a news release.

The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Northern Division after attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement.

WTAJ has reached out to Sheetz, but no comment was available at the time of this publishing.

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