President Joe Biden stopped by a Sheetz location on Wednesday to purchase snacks while on a campaign swing through Pennsylvania on the same day that his Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against the company and two of its subsidiaries.
Apparently, no one informed the president that his administration considered Sheetz guilty of racial discrimination against applicants. Or someone did tell Biden that, and he just didn’t care.
It might not matter, given the questionable nature of the claim against the company.
“According to the lawsuit, Sheetz has maintained a longstanding practice of screening all job applicants for records of criminal conviction and then denying them employment based on those records,” the EEOC said in a news release (available below).
Those screenings resulted in 14.5 percent of blacks being turned down for jobs, compared with 13.5 percent of “multiracial” applicants, 13 percent of Native Americans, and nearly 8 percent of whites.
The EEOC did not accuse Sheetz of active racism, but said federal law prohibits hiring practices that impact minorities differently than non-minorities.
Even if the criminal background checks are shown to be necessary, an EEOC lawyer said, they could still be unlawful if some other means could be employed that would provide safety without the allegedly discriminatory effects.
The EEOC statement suggested no such alternatives, however.
Hellbound and Down 