The OFCCP extracted $76,749 in back wages from the Jack B. Kelley
trucking firm of Amarillo, Texas, which was then distributed among
five applicants who had been denied jobs at the firm. The company's
drivers routinely handle hazardous waste, missile propellants,
sulfuric acid, and nitric acid, and they must be able to move heavy
loads while wearing respirators that make breathing significantly more
difficult. The OFCCP condemned the company for not hiring two
applicants who were heavy smokers and who showed signs of diminished
lung capacity as well as possible signs of emphysema. Another
applicant suffered from epileptic seizures that could not be fully
controlled with medication; the OFCCP ruled that the man should have
been hired to drive a truck full of hazardous waste. The agency also
penalized the company for failing to hire a man who, because of a
recent operation, lacked the strength in his hands and arms to drive a
large truck. The OFCCP ruled against the company despite the fact that
the
Department of Transportation
issues its own safety regulations prohibiting someone in that
condition from driving a heavy truck; had there been an accident, the
company would have likely been found guilty of negligence in hiring
him. Oddly enough, none of the applicants had complained to the
company or to the government about not being hired; the OFCCP located
the individuals by searching the company's files. A company spokesman
said that two of the individuals "called us and brought it to our
attention that we may not have been treated fairly. They told me, 'We
don't want any hard feelings. We didn't ask for your money.' Two of
these guys said they felt bad about taking our money."
The OFCCP also audited the personnel records of Carolina Steel of North Carolina, which in fact hires a significantly higher percentage of blacks than there are in the local labor force. Carolina Steel's main office is a block and a half from the local unemployment office, so unemployment compensation recipients, who are required to submit a certain number of job applications each week, applied to Carolina Steel in large numbers as a matter of convenience. This produced a statistical disparity in the number of black applicants who were not hired, especially since the agency counted some applicants not just once, but as many times as they had applied to the company. After an extensive dispute following the hiring discrimination charge, Carolina Steel settled for $120,000, which was divided up among 264 applicants—many of whom later remained unhired because they failed drug tests. Carolina Steel CEO Len Wise said, "We don't think that we were treated fairly under the law, but we settled in order to get them off our back." A local television station also interviewed the company's black employees, none of whom said they thought Carolina Steel was racially biased.
