The New York State Department of Correctional Services will pay almost $1 million to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The department was accused of providing inferior benefits to female employees on maternity leave.
Both male and female employees with work-related injuries were given up to six months of paid workers’ compensation leave. However, pregnant employees on such leave were involuntarily switched to maternity leave at or around the time they gave birth. The EEOC said that practice resulted in lesser benefits for those women due to their sex and thus violated the Equal Pay Act (EPA).
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York joined the lawsuit by adding claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It alleged that the corrections department’s “categorical determination that a female employee who gives birth to a child should be transferred from workers’ compensation leave and benefits without making a determination whether, on an individual basis, the employee continues to be eligible for workers’ compensation leave and benefits” reflected a “pattern and practice” of discrimination based on sex.
Under the settlement, the corrections department will pay $972,000 in compensatory damages, liquidated damages, back pay, and interest to 23 female employees. The department has also agreed to amend its workers’ comp directive to provide that no female officer shall be removed from workers’ comp benefits due to pregnancy or the birth of a child, and it will provide antidiscrimination training to employees across the state, along with training in the administration of workers’ comp benefits to its personnel employees. The corrections department will also give to each female employee preparing to take a maternity leave a packet of all applicable policies, procedures, and benefits.
One manager’s harassment to cost Dillard’s half a million
The EEOC has settled a class sexual harassment suit against the Dillard’s department store chain for $500,000 and “and substantial remedial relief.” Twelve women alleged that assistant store manager Scot McGinness sexually harassed them. According to the EEOC, Dillard’s knew that he was sexually harassing young female subordinates at one California location, but instead of firing or disciplining him, it transferred him into a management position in a Colorado store (and failed to notify the new store of his past). After a female employee at the Colorado store complained that McGinness touched her inappropriately, he was given a verbal warning. He wasn’t fired until 10 months later when an 18-year-old employee complained to the police that he was verbally and physically harassing her.
Sandra Padegimas, the EEOC trial attorney who prosecuted this case, said, “Cloaked with his mantle of authority, Mr. McGinness used his power over his female subordinate employees as a way to reward or punish his victims. By failing to notify the Colorado store about this man’s sexual harassment in California at the time of his transfer to Colorado, Dillard’s permitted [those] employees to go in harm’s way.”
In addition to paying $500,000 to the 12 women, Dillard’s will have to provide “significant sexual harassment training to employees and management officials, including training for managers on how to properly investigate sexual harassment allegations.” The company also agreed that when a manager is transferred, it will provide the new store’s management with notice of any previous harassment claims against that employee. It also must provide two hours of harassment training to employees who have a claim filed against them unless the claim is deemed to have “no merit.”
Ybarra Lloyd, who worked at the California store, said, “The EEOC helped us ladies stand up to Dillard’s. In order to settle this lawsuit, Dillard’s had to agree to make changes in its workplace that, hopefully, will prevent others from being victimized. I think employers should be required to tell their employees about the EEOC because most of us don’t know that there is an agency that can help victims fight workplace discrimination. The EEOC gave us a voice!”
Another class member, Ketty Lopez, who worked at the California store, said, “Our complaints about sexual harassment were ignored because no one seemed to care — but the EEOC made them care. Now Dillard’s will have to follow up on any complaints about sexual harassment it receives.”