Women Can Now Cut Meat At Mars Supermarkets

Posted by marykeating on September 14, 2009 under Sex-based discrimination | Be the First to Comment

Last year the EEOC sued the Baltimore supermarket chain, Mars Super Markets, Inc., in the United States District Court in Baltimore, alleging sex discrimination.  It accused the supermarket of refusing to permit women employees from becoming meat cutters in its deli departments.  After a clerk in the Dundalk store was refused the job, the EEOC investigated and discovered a pattern, and filed suit in federal district court.

Mars agreed to settle the case earlier this month.  In addition to paying a settlement of $275,000 to several women who were illegally denied these jobs, Mars agreed to train its supervisors in avoiding discrimination, to offer meat cutter jobs to women who had previously been denied them, to develop meat cutter job descriptions, to keep better records, and to post notices about the employees’ rights.

This case is a little unusual in its pattern of discrimination.  It seems that most employers have caught on to the laws against gender discrimination, and the complaints of discrimination are often based on subtle indications of bias.  In this case, though, the supermarket is accused of applying a  blanket prohibition against women becoming meat cutters.  Why – because men are thought to have superior physical strength?  Or some notion that it’s a masculine job?  In any event, Mars is taking detailed steps to prevent the same prejudices from barring women from performing this job.