US Department of Labor, Sysco North Texas agree to resolve alleged hiring discrimination at Lewisville distribution facility

LEWISVILLE, TX – The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into an early resolution conciliation agreement with Sysco North Texas Inc. to resolve alleged hiring discrimination against 798 female and Black job applicants at the federal contractor’s Lewisville warehouse distribution center.

The conciliation agreement follows a routine compliance evaluation by the department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs that alleged – from Nov. 20, 2017, through Dec. 17, 2019 – Sysco North Texas Inc. discriminated against 135 female applicants and 663 Black male applicants when hiring for outbound selector positions. Executive Order 11246 prohibits federal contractors from discriminating in employment based race, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.

“No person should be rejected when they apply for a job because of their gender or their race,” said Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Southwest Regional Director Melissa Speer in Dallas. “The U.S. Department of Labor and Sysco North Texas worked together to resolve these matters and to prevent similar discrimination issues from happening again. We appreciate that Sysco North Texas moved quickly to remedy our concerns and has committed to ensuring future compliance with federal hiring and equal employment opportunity laws.”

As part of the agreement, the employer paid $121,000 in back wages to the affected applicants and agreed to extend job opportunities to six female and five Black applicants not selected for the outbound selector position. It will also provide training to all company employees involved in hiring decisions and will review and revise its recruitment processes to prevent discrimination.

During the period that OFCCP reviewed, the company had federal contracts with the Department of Defense and the Department of Interior’s bureaus of Indian Affairs and Indian Education.

A subsidiary of the Houston-based Sysco Corp. – a global leader in selling, marketing and distributing food products to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, and lodging establishments, and providing equipment to the foodservice and hospitality industries, the Sysco North Texas distribution center is one of more than 300 operated by Sysco worldwide.

In a related matter, Sysco Corp. also entered into a conciliation agreement with the department at its Sysco Central Texas Inc. location in New Braunfels to resolve allegations of hiring discrimination against 180 female applicants, and 190 Black male applicants.

OFCCP launched the Class Member Locator to identify applicants or workers who may be entitled to monetary relief and/or consideration for job placement because of OFCCP’s compliance evaluations and complaint investigations. If you think you may be a class member employed by Sysco Corp., learn more about this and other settlements.

OFCCP enforces Executive Order 11246, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974.