Sheetz sued by EEOC for con­duct­ing crim­i­nal back­ground checks on appli­cants

Gas sta­tion chain Sheetz has been sued for con­duct­ing crim­i­nal back­ground checks on its job appli­cants.
The law­suit was filed by the Equal Employ­ment Oppor­tu­ni­ty Com­mis­sion and lists Sheetz, Inc.; Sheetz Dis­tri­b­u­tion Ser­vices, LLC; and CLI Trans­port, LP as the defen­dants. The EEOC says that Sheetz has dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly screened out black, Native Amer­i­can, Alas­ka Native, and mul­tira­cial appli­cants from its hir­ing process due to the chain not hir­ing appli­cants with crim­i­nal con­vic­tion records.
“Fed­er­al law man­dates that employ­ment prac­tices caus­ing a dis­parate impact because of race or oth­er pro­tect­ed clas­si­fi­ca­tions must be shown by the employ­er to be nec­es­sary to ensure the safe and effi­cient per­for­mance of the par­tic­u­lar jobs at issue,” EEOC Region­al Attor­ney Debra M. Lawrence said. “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 di …