Scholarship News

Lumberton, NC, United States (AHN) – The U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has filed an administrative complaint against a North Carolina company, Nash Finch Co., with systematic job discrimination against 80 women.

Minneapolis, MN-based Nash Finch is the second-largest publicly traded wholesale food distributor in the U.S. It has contracts with the federal government to provide goods and services to more than 200 military bases in the U.S. and overseas.

OFCCP charges that Nash Finch discriminated against 80 qualified women who had applied for positions as order selectors at the Lumberton, NC, plant. Order selectors pull stock from warehouse shelves to fill orders.

In monitoring files, the OFCCP found that the company hired 6 percent of qualified female applicants versus 26 percent of qualified male applicants.

Moreover, this was not the first instance of discrimination that the OFCCP found at a Nash Finch facility, according to the complaint.

Previous investigations at Nash Finch facilities in Norfolk, VA, St. Cloud, MN, and Omaha, NE, have found violations of the law and discrimination in the company’s policies and procedures that “created an uneven playing field for women, minorities and veterans seeking employment with the company,” according to an OFCCP statement.

“It is unacceptable that a company which profits from lucrative federal contracts would repeatedly violate the law in this manner,” said OFCCP Director Patricia A. Shiu. “Nash Finch has demonstrated an unfortunate pattern and practice of hiring discrimination, and the American taxpayers should not have to bankroll this company’s bad behavior anymore.”

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