J.B. Hunt Settles Discrimination Case With Sikh Applicants Over Hair Testing
This story appears in the Nov. 28 print edition of Transport Topics.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. and four East Indian Sikh truck driver applicants agreed to a settlement — with the company paying more than a quarter million dollars — that would no longer force job applicants to submit to hair drug testing if it violated their religious beliefs.
The settlement, announced earlier this month by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, will require Hunt to pay $260,000 to the applicants, who were rejected for employment because they refused drug tests using hair.
The complaints were lodged against the Lowell, Arkansas-based logistics firm with EEOC beginning in 2008 by the Sikh Coalition on behalf of the applicants denied employment.
Although hair drug tests are not formally recognized by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Hunt is one of many large carriers that by policy require applicants to submit to the test, although only urine test samples are formally recognized by DOT.
Sikh articles of faith require that members wear their turbans and that is “shameful” for them to be removed, said Harsimran Kaur, legal director of the New York City-based Sikh Coalition.
The faith also requires that hair be “unshorn and unaltered” from its natural state.
“They are not allowed to cut their hair and must wear turbans at all times in public,” Kaur said.
“The settlement sends a message to employers that even drug-testing regimens do not fall outside of the purview of federal antidiscrimination law,” Kaur added. “They can have these policies and can ask for hair testing during their drug regimen, but they do at the same time have to provide both religious and medical accommodations.”
Hunt agreed to enter into the settlement without admitting liability, according to EEOC.
“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 a statement, the Sikh Coalition said that while the economic damages alleviate some of the losses incurred by the four applicants, the broader policy changes will positively affect Sikhs and others who may face discrimination in the company’s workplace.
“For example, the company will be obligated to train its hiring personnel on anti-discrimination law and submit reports to the EEOC for the next two years about its workplace anti-discrimination efforts,” the Sikh Coalition statement said.
Hunt, which ranks No. 4 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada, did not respond to phone and e-mail requests seeking comment on the settlement.
Motor carriers that have gone to the extra expense of using hair testing — which can detect drug use up to 90 days in the past — say they are seeing patterns that support the contention that they better identify “lifestyle drug use.”
The Department of Health and Human Services also allows oral swab testing, but DOT has yet to adopt that standard.
A provision in the FAST Act signed into law in December 2015 requires HHS to adopt a hair drug-testing policy by next month. Officials have said, though, the deadline likely will not be met.
Before publication, the proposed standard would need to be approved by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and HHS as well as the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The FAST Act notes the hair-testing standard “shall provide an exemption from hair testing for commercial motor vehicle operators with established religious beliefs that prohibit the cutting or removal of hair.”
EEOC said in a statement that three of the four applicants were denied hire at a South Gate, California, location. The fourth applicant was screened out during a phone call prior to a face-to-face meeting at the company’s South Gate hub.
