Ryder Accused of Racial Discrimination in New Lawsuit

Los Angeles, CA – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on Wednesday that it is has filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against Ryder Integrated Logistics, Inc. and Kimco Staffing Services, Inc.

In a suit filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the EEOC contends Ryder Integrated Logistics, Inc., a transportation and supply chain solutions company, and staffing agency, Kimco Staffing Services, Inc., violated federal law by “subjecting black employees to racial harassment and retaliation.”

In the announcement of the suit, the EEOC said black employees assigned by Kimco to Ryder’s Moreno Valley, CA facility, along with black employees directly hired by Ryder, were subjected to “ongoing and unwelcome harassment based on their race.”

The EEOC asserts that on a daily or weekly basis, multiple Ryder and Kimco employees referred to their black co-workers by using “racial slurs and epithets.”

Further, the suit alleges when a female black employee complained to management about racial harassment, neither Ryder nor Kimco took “immediate and corrective action.”

The employee who complained was subsequently terminated within days, the EEOC said.

Racial harassment and retaliation for complaining about it are prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The EEOC said it attempted to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process, but was unable.

The litigation seeks monetary damages for a class of employees, as well as injunctive relief intended to prevent and correct any future discrimination, harassment and retaliation.

Representatives for the defendants have not yet issued a response.