EEOC Appeals $4.7 Mln. Order in CRST Case

The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission on Sept. 30 appealed a federal judge’s order to pay CRST Van Expedited Inc. $4.7 million in attorneys’ fees and expenses in connection with the agency’s 2007 class action sexual harassment lawsuit the judge called “frivolous.”

“The district court erred in granting summary judgment on EEOC’s pattern or practice and individual harassment claims and in dismissing the case for failure to conciliate individual claims,” EEOC said in its filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit in St. Louis.

U.S. District Judge Linda Reade’s Aug. 1 order came after she ruled that the EEOC’s “pattern-or-practice” claims were “unreasonable or groundless.”

Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based truckload carrier CRST International settled one of the original 270 female drivers’ claims contained in the EEOC’s lawsuit for $50,000, saying it did so to avoid future legal expenses.

CRST is ranked No. 20 on the Transport Topics Top 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.