The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued KLLM Transport Services and its driving academy, alleging that female student drivers faced discriminatory training policies that delayed their training and, in some cases, their pay.

The lawsuit involves KLLM Driving Academy locations in Lancaster, Texas, and Jackson, Mississippi. The EEOC alleges the companies have subjected female student drivers to different training conditions based on sex since at least January 2021.

Driver Training Policies at Center of EEOC Lawsuit

According to the complaint, KLLM allowed male trainers to opt out of training female students rather than providing separate sleeping quarters for men and women during training. As a result, the EEOC said, some female drivers had to wait longer to begin training.

The agency also alleges that female students who requested female trainers were not paid while waiting for a female trainer to become available. Other students waiting to begin training were paid, including male students who requested male trainers, according to the complaint.

In addition, the EEOC said KLLM required female students willing to train with a male instructor to notify their spouse or partner before beginning training. Male students were not subject to a similar requirement.

EEOC Says Policies Violated Federal Law

The EEOC contends the policies violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on sex.

“Rather than provide the female student drivers single-sex sleeping quarters that protected their privacy and ensured equal employment opportunity, the employer here instead decided to adopt a series of sex-based discriminatory policies that treated women trainees worse than male trainees and disadvantaged them in their employment opportunities,” said acting EEOC General Counsel Catherine Eschbach in a news release.

The EEOC filed the lawsuit, U.S. EEOC v. KLLM Transport Services LLC and KLLM Driving Academy, Inc., in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.

The agency said it filed suit after attempts to reach a settlement through its conciliation process were unsuccessful.

“Sex discrimination, whether in hiring, training or while on-the-job, continues to pose a significant barrier to female workers’ participation in historically male-dominated industries, including trucking,” said acting EEOC Dallas Regional Attorney Ronald Phillips.