On the same day that President Joe Biden made an impromptu campaign stop at a Pittsburgh-area Sheetz, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued the convenience store company for alleged racial discrimination.
The April 17 lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, charges that Pennsylvania-based Sheetz Inc.’s use of criminal background checks to screen job applicants is racially discriminatory.
The EEOC does not claim that the alleged discrimination is deliberate. But the process itself, the agency claims, “causes significant disparate impact” to black, Native American, and multiracial applicants.
For example, the complaint notes that 14.5 percent of black applicants were denied employment at Sheetz due to a failed background check. Similar results were found in the cases of Native American and multiracial job seekers, while less than 8 percent of white applicants were denied jobs for the same reason.
The EEOC acknowledges in its lawsuit that the employment outcomes were consistent with criminal justice statistics, which show that black, Native American, and multiracial Americans are more likely to have criminal backgrounds.
Nonetheless, the agency alleges that Sheetz’s hiring practices violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars workplace discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, and national origin.
“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 attorney Debra M. Lawrence said in a statement.
“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 discriminatory effect.”
The EEOC began investigating Sheetz after two job applicants filed complaints alleging racial discrimination. The agency filed the lawsuit after attempts to settle the dispute out of court were unsuccessful.
Sheetz has more than 23,000 employees and more than 500 locations across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, and North Carolina.
Responding to the lawsuit on April 18, the company said that it “does not tolerate discrimination of any kind.”
“Diversity and inclusion are essential parts of who we are. We take these allegations seriously. We have attempted to work with the EEOC for nearly eight years to find common ground and resolve this dispute,” Sheetz spokesperson Nick Ruffner told The Associated Press.
President Biden gave no indication of the burgeoning court battle as he cheerfully purchased snacks, posed for photos, and chatted up Sheetz employees in Pittsburgh.
Biden’s Visit Follows Trump’s Bodega Stop
Mr. Alba fatally stabbed a customer in 2022 in an act of self-defense. He was initially charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg with second-degree murder, but the charges were later dropped.President Trump was in New York for the second day of his criminal trial—another case brought by Mr. Bragg.
Speaking with reporters outside the store, the former president criticized Mr. Bragg for targeting him and Mr. Alba while allowing violent criminals to roam free.
“Alvin Bragg does nothing,” he said. “He goes after guys like Trump, who did nothing wrong. Violent criminals, murderers—there are hundreds of murderers all over the city. They know who they are, and they don’t pick them up. They go after Trump.”
President Trump also asserted that the various criminal cases against him were being brought to keep him off his presidential campaign trail.
“This is all politics,” he said. “This is coming out of the White House.”
