Trucking Company Pays $260,000 Settlement

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A national trucking company has agreed to pay $260,000 to settle discrimination complaints by four Sikh truckers who were denied jobs for refusing drug tests that violated their religious beliefs.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. reached the settlement being announced today with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The Sikh Coalition, a civil rights organization that represented the men, says the trucking company required three men to clip their hair for drug samples and required a fourth to remove his turban before providing a urine sample.

Observant Sikhs never cut their hair and wear turbans in public at all times.

The four men were denied jobs when they refused to submit to the tests and weren’t provided testing alternatives.

A lawyer for J.B. Hunt says the company won’t comment.