The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against Richland-based KLLM Transport Services for allegedly discriminating against female students at its driver training academy. The company is owned by Mississippi billionaire brothers Tommy and James Duff.
Tommy Duff has publicly said he is considering running for governor in 2027 but has not announced as a candidate.
The commission, which enforces federal worker discrimination laws, filed the lawsuit against the company Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. KLLM runs training programs in Mississippi and Texas.
Duff Capital, which is at least a part owner of KLLM, is owned by the Duff brothers. According to Forbes, Duff Capital Investors purchased KLLM for $12 million in 2008 and in 2018 the trucking company brought in $600 million in revenue.
Duff Capital is the largest privately held business in Mississippi with ownership in over 20 companies, making the Duff brothers the wealthiest people in the state. They are estimated to be worth a combined $7 billion.
Court filings said that as early as 2021, students who received a conditional offer of employment from KLLM were required to complete on-the-road training with an experienced driver before they could work independently. Before the approximately six-week training, students were given a form where they could mark whether they preferred a male or female trainer or opt for the earliest available trainer. Trainers were also allowed to indicate the same preferences for their student driver.
KLLM did not assign female students to male trainers who said they preferred to only train male students. Because there were fewer female trainers, female students often had to wait longer to start their training.
In addition, female student drivers who stated a preference for a female trainer for on-the-road training were not paid while they waited to be paired with a trainer, but male students who indicated a preference for a male trainer were paid, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also said the company had a policy that required female students to inform their spouse that they had requested for the first available trainer or a male trainer, and that they had to certify that the information was shared. There was no similar requirement for male students. The company also required trainers and students to sleep in the truck’s bunk bed, even when the trainer and driver were the opposite sex.
“Rather than provide the female student driver’s single-sex sleeping quarters that protected their privacy and ensured equal employment opportunity, the employer here instead decided to adopt a series of sex-based discriminatory policies that treated women trainees worse than male trainees and disadvantaged them in their employment opportunities, which is unlawful disparate treatment,” said acting Employment Commission General Counsel Catherine Eschbach in a statement.
KLLM and a representative for Tommy Duff did not respond to a request for comment by publication time Thursday.
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