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Judge rules against Prime in gender discrimination case

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A federal judge last week ruled against Springfield-based trucking company Prime Inc. in a gender discrimination lawsuit brought on by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2011.

Handed down Aug. 14, the ruling states Prime violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating against female truck driver applicants by requiring them to be trained only by female instructors, according to a news release from the EEOC.

According to the ruling in EEOC and Clouse v. New Prime Inc., Prime engaged in a pattern of discrimination by denying employment opportunities to women as a result of its same-sex training procedures. Because Prime had few female trainers, the judge found female trainees were required to wait extended periods of times - sometimes up to 18 months - for a trainer to become available, which in some cases resulted in female drivers being denied employment. The lawsuit claimed male applicants were quickly assigned to male trainers.

“While Prime would like to claim it was protecting women, its policy denied employment opportunities to them," said Andrea Baran, regional attorney of the EEOC's St. Louis district, in the release. "Women are entirely capable of understanding and assessing the risks of truck driving. But one of those risks should not be sexual harassment.

"Employers should prevent sexual harassment through training and strict enforcement of effective anti-harassment policies, not by segregating male and female employees."

Through attorney James Sullivan of Polsinelli PC, Prime Inc. issued a statement on the outcome of the case.

"In 2004, Prime implemented a training policy that required that its over-the-road truck driver trainees be trained by someone of the same gender. Prime implemented the policy in good faith, believing that significant concerns for the safety and privacy of its female driver trainees satisfied a long-recognized exception to the discrimination laws. In its recent ruling, the court did not agree that this exception applied to this case. Prime respects the ruling of the Court.  Significant issues though still remain to be determined in this case.”

According to the EEOC, the case now is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri in Springfield to determine damages and remedies for women harmed by Prime's policies.

Prime employs some 2,000 people. The company posted 2013 revenue of $1.2 billion, representing three-year growth of 23 percent, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.[[In-content Ad]]

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