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Dave DeWitteDave DeWitte specializes in covering transportation, utilities and workplace issues and developments as a business reporter. He places a special [...] |
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Former CRST driver wins $1.5 million harassment judgment
CRST's logo.
A sexual harassment trial against CRST Expedited of Cedar Rapids and one of its trainers ended after 24 days last week with a verdict of $1.5 million for a former driver trainee.
Karen Shank was a 45-year-old trainee driver working out of CRST’s California terminal in 2005 when she went out on the road with trainer John Wilson to learn the fine points of over-the-road driving in a 28-day training period.
Shank quit CRST Expedited (then known as CRST Van Expedited) after completing the 28-day training period and being assigned to work with another male driver. She complained in the lawsuit that CRST allowed a hostile work environment by failing to prevent Wilson’s unwanted touching and sexual comments. She filed suit in 2006, and the case finally wound up before a California jury in San Bernardino District Court in March.
The jury ordered $1.17 million in punitive damages – three times the actual damages of $391,328, after finding the company and its trainer’s behavior to be malicious, or with a conscious disregard for Shank’s rights. The punitive damages are allowed under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, according to Elizabeth Riles, the Oakland, Calif.-based attorney for Shank.
CRST plans to appeal the verdict, said Dave Rusch, CEO of CRST International, the parent company of CRST Expedited, also named in the lawsuit.
“We’re very disappointed in the jury’s findings and have a lot of grounds for appeal,” Rusch said.
Riles said Shank went into the trucking business knowing it would not be easy to work in a male-dominated industry.
“What we said to the jurors was, “It’s not like our client expected to go there and have tea. She knew what she was getting into, but then you cross a line.”
Riles said Shank quit one day after getting a regular driving assignment with a male CRST driver because she was emotionally distraught. She is now in college to prepare for a different occupation.
The lawsuit is the latest in a string of cases filed against CRST alleging failure to protect women truck drivers from harassment by male trainers and other drivers. The company won a victory in a class action lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last year when a judge dismissed the case based on the legal procedures used by the EEOC.
Just last month, however, the company faced another lawsuit from a Oklahoma couple who wanted to work as tandem team drivers for CRST.
Ona Red Hat and Leo Runearth claimed the company allowed a racially hostile work environment and retaliated when they complained that a male driver trainer who worked with Red Hat touched her inappropriately and used racial slurs for Mexican Americans.
After they complained, Red Hat and Runearth claimed that they received bad driving assignments and no longer received good dispatch assistance when they ran into trouble, causing them to drive off-route and incur extra mileage costs that they had to pay.
CRST has not yet filed an answer to the claims of Red Hat and Runearth.
“CRST allowed a hostile work environment by failing to prevent Wilson’s unwanted touching and sexual comments.”
since CRST was WITH HER in the truck…..and since CRST keeps tabs on what goes on inside every single cab and every single driver…shees!
here is an idea for CRST – have prospective drivers sign a release preventing drivers from suing the company if their feelings are hurt by another driver. the lawsuit should be against the PERSON who committed the crime, not the company that employed them. CRST i am sure did not endorse bad behavior nor encourage it, and what were they supposed to do? i would think reassign the driver once a complaint was made pending investigation, and if there was merit to the complaint, fire his a.s.s. what else?
i suppose CRST could adopt a new policy where driving teams must either be of the same s.ex or married to each other, otherwise a no-go, but then i am sure the whiners would find a way to make claims of not having ‘equal opportunity’….
Glad to see you contend a corporation cannot being held accountable for the behavior of a COMPANY TRAINER.
Like it or not, Terry, a company assumes liability for the behavior of its employees, and is obligated to have nondiscrimination policies in place. This story does not contain enough information, but if Karen Shank went to supervisory personnel with her allegations of harassment, and CRST did nothing or not enough to mitigate the situation, they are liable.
Sheesh, you sound like you’ve never worked for a company with a written human rights policy…
What the company needs to do is to state positively to new employees, and have seminars for existing employees, that will affirm the rights of all employees to be free of any form of sexual or other harassment. That
behavior standards supporting this policy will be expected of every employee, and that persons violating these standards will be terminated.
CRST was featured with myself in an Dan Rather investigative report for it poor training and it’s massive sexual harassment case that is currently in appeal with the EEOC. This is no fluke case. Trucking carrier who train students do so with very little professionalism and this has been standard operating procedure for a very long time. They target women to recruit them into the industry but put little effort into properly matching trainers and students or student teams. Many women are harmed during training and retaliated against after they report abuse. This case is a huge victory in an extremely corrupt industry.
Trucker Desiree, there you go again, painting a broad picture of something that is not the case. I am a driver trainer/mentor at a company that does actively recruits women and I have trained a couple. NOTHING has ever happened with any of my female students, or any of my gay male students. It is not the job of the company to find potential victums for their trainers. At the same time, it is the job of a company to protect all their employees from any type of hostile work environment. I know a couple of the ladies that were involved in the class action lawsuit against CRST. They were fired by their safety director Randy Kopecky after they joined the lawsuit. This “man” and I use the term loosely, is a manace to all who hold a CDL. He is part of the problem with the industry and before it can be resolved, him and people like him need to be kicked out of the industry where they can do no more damage.
Personally, I would not believe a single word Dan Rather said. The man lost all credibility with me when he attempted to use false and made up copies of National Guard memo’s trying to say former president bush got preferential treatment. He even admitted that the documents were fake. He should just go away and let us get our news from reliable sources.