Reference no: EM132202310
On the Edge
Driving for Old Dominion
Old Dominion Freight Line is a trucking company that hires two kinds of drivers.74 “Line Haul” drivers drive long dis- tances and spend nights and weekends on the road. “Pickup and Delivery” drivers only drive locally and stay home, but they have to carry and stack heavy loads, so their job is more physically demanding. Out of 3,100 Pickup and Delivery drivers in the company, only five were women. Deborah Merritt worked for six years as a Line Haul driver, making long trips across the United States, sometimes driving over 500 miles per day. Still, she never complained and did her job well. However, Merritt wanted a Pickup and Delivery job so she would not have to spend time away from home. To show she could do the job, she filled in for Pickup and Delivery drivers when needed. Her supervisor said Merritt did a good job on Pickup and Delivery, and several clients complimented her work. When a full-time Pickup and Delivery job finally was available, Merritt told Bobby Howard, her Lynchburg, Virginia, terminal manager, that she wanted the job. Howard said he did not have the authority to fill the position. However, later, he in fact hired someone else to take the job: a male driver with less truck- driving experience. Merritt did not complain. A year later, another Pickup and Delivery job became available. Again, Howard hired a less-experienced male driver. When Merritt asked why he passed her over twice, Howard said it “had been discussed and it was decided that they could not let a woman have that position.” He pointed out that “the company did not really have women. . . [Pickup and Deliv- ery] drivers.” An Old Dominion driver put it simply: “We don’t have no females.” Howard also told her that Old Dominion’s Regional Vice President “was afraid [a female] would get hurt” and “didn’t think a girl should have that position.” An operations manager agreed, saying “this is not a woman’s place.”
Another year passed and a Pickup and Delivery job again became available. This time the company gave the position to Merritt, but told her that she would be on proba- tion for 90 days and would lose the job if she had any per- formance problems. No male drivers had ever been required to go through a probation period. Merritt worked as a Pickup and Delivery driver for 90 days, and had no problems carrying freight or doing anything else required of the posi- tion. However, seven months later, she injured her ankle while moving boxes. Her doctor said she could not do Pickup and Delivery until it healed. Three months later, Mer- ritt’s ankle was well and her doctor told her “nothing . . . prevented her from performing her duties as a Pickup and Delivery driver. . . . [Her ankle was] as well, if not better, . . . than before her injury.” So Merritt asked to have her Pickup and Delivery job back. However, Brian Stoddard, vice presi- dent of Safety and Personnel, said that she first had to take a “physical ability test” that would evaluate her strength, agility, and cardiovascular endurance and have her perform the tasks of a Pickup and Delivery driver. Merritt did not pass the test; but the test had been used only rarely and only when hiring new people. If male employees were injured while on the job, Stoddard admitted, he was “not necessarily going to send them for a [physical fitness] test.” Moreover, Merritt said, she could obviously do the job since she did it for seven months and filled in for other drivers even longer. Nevertheless, Stoddard fired her because of her “inability to perform [the] job” as indicated by the test and later replaced her with a male driver.
Was the fact that Deborah Merritt did not pass the physical ability test sufficient justification for firing her? Why or why not?
Did Old Dominion Freight Line discriminate unjustly against Merritt? If you think firing her was unjust discrimination, then was it individual or institutionalized discrimination? Explain your answer.