The California-based company Meathead Movers was started by Aaron Steed – and what began with one truck has now grown to the largest independently owned moving company in California. But in 2017, during the Obama administration, the EEOC launched an investigation against the business for alleged "age discrimination."
Attorney Jon Riches of Goldwater Institute calls the allegation ridiculous.
"Essentially … the federal government was saying … that a moving company was engaged in age discrimination because it hired people who could, well, move furniture," Riches explains. "We think that's a pretty preposterous position for the EEOC to take, and we recently sent that agency a Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] request to figure out why they were targeting this successful American business."
Initially, EEOC demanded $15 million from Meathead Movers. According to Riches, that constitutes a "crippling" fine the company would not be able to pay.
"When [we] found out about this, we wanted to know why the federal government was targeting this company – and there were a few things that were really odd about it," says Riches. "One was that it didn't appear to be based on any actual complaints from people who were actually harmed; the agency just did it on its own.
"So, we submitted a FOIA request asking for very basic information [like] how many complaints were submitted against this company? How many other agency-initiated lawsuits did the EEOC bring? And to our surprise, the agency did not give us any of that information and basically refused to provide the public with the reasons why it is targeting this company."
Goldwater has appealed that decision to the EEOC. If the agency doesn't release the records, Riches says Goldwater plans to file a case in federal court to compel the agency to turn over the information.
"… If the federal government can target Meathead Movers on these sorts of allegations – that is, [if] they're targeting the company because [it is] just doing what the company exists to do, hiring people who can perform the job – then they can target any company in the United States based on other similar allegations. I think that should be a concern for all Americans," Riches adds.
AFN reached out to EEOC for a statement and received a "no comment" response.
Image compliments of Goldwater Institute
