An Illinois trucking company fired a driver for his hair style for the second time in three years last month.
26-year-old Drew Harbey was fired from TMC Transportation in Des-Moines, Iowa on June 23rd during his training after refusing to wear a “buzz cut” hairstyle.
“I was one of the top performers .. Harvey said to Des Moines Register. “I was thinking my instructor might be giving me a little bit of praise for doing a good job. I was getting ready to walk into the classroom and he stopped me and said, ‘You need to go talk to HR before stepping into the classroom.'”
“I was talking to the vice president of HR, and he basically tells me, ‘You need to either buzz cut by Friday or you cannot continue employment with us,” said Harvey, who wears his hair in locs. Harvey says the company cited concern over hard hat wearing as the reason for the hairstyle request, but says he offered several alternative ways to wear his hair that would allow the hat to fit, and the company still insisted he cut his hair.
“I’ve seen multiple people of my skin color and my different hair types conduct their job more than efficiently with a hard hat,” said Harvey. “So go figure.”
“Being an African American, and just understanding where my people are from, our hair is very deeply tied to our spirituality as well as our moral beliefs,” he said. “I have not cut my hair since the day my father passed away four years ago … My dad would braid it up for me.”
The night Harvey was fired, the company put him on a bus home, and he contacted Ben Lynch, a civil rights attorney who worked with the last man TMC fired over his hairstyle back in 2021, Damon Mitchell.
“I don’t want this to continuously be a problem for people of my skin color and ethnicity,” Harvey said. “We should not be subjected to these types of discriminatory claims.”
“I don’t know why this is happening in 2024,” Lynch said. “Drew (Harvey) is the nicest guy in the world. He should be exactly who you want at your company.”
Harvey filed a civil rights complaint to the Iowa Civil Rights Commission on June 25. Iowa law states he cannot file a lwsuit until days after the initial complaint.