NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas – The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into an early resolution conciliation agreement with Sysco Central Texas Inc. to resolve alleged hiring discrimination against 370 female and Black job applicants at the federal contractor’s New Braunfels warehouse distribution center.
The conciliation agreement follows a routine compliance evaluation by the department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs that alleged – from Jan. 5, 2018, through Feb. 17, 2020 – Sysco Central Texas Inc. discriminated against 180 female applicants and 190 Black male applicants when hiring for outbound selector positions. Executive Order 11246 prohibits federal contractors from discriminating in employment based on race, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.
As part of the agreement, the employer paid $154,000 in back wages to the affected applicants and agreed to extend job opportunities to eight female and seven 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.
“Sysco Central Texas cooperated with the U.S. Department of Labor to resolve these matters and are taking steps to prevent similar issues from happening again,” said Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Southwest Regional Director Melissa Speer in Dallas. “Sysco Central Texas took immediate action to comply with federal hiring and equal employment opportunity laws, and to ensure future compliance.”
During the OFCCP evaluation period, Sysco Central Texas 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 Central Texas distribution center is one of more than 300 operated by Sysco worldwide.
In a related matter, Sysco Corp. also entered into a separate conciliation agreement with the department to resolve allegation of hiring discrimination against 135 female applicants and 663 Black male applicants at its Sysco North Texas Inc. warehouse in Lewisville, Texas.
