A recent judgment offers a lesson in responding to discrimination claims. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), an employer has been ordered to pay $37,500 in damages for filing suit against an employee because she filed an equal pay charge.
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A female project manager for Hobson Bearing International, Inc., filed a claim with the EEOC last year, alleging that the employer paid female employees less than male employees for performing equal work.
The employer then sued her in state court, alleging “malicious prosecution,” EEOC said in its August 29 announcement.
The commission then sued the employer, alleging that the lawsuit amounted to retaliation for her exercising her rights under the Equal Pay Act. The parties later agreed that Hobson’s suit violated federal law, and a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri awarded the project manager $37,500 in damages and ordered the employer to dismiss its lawsuit (EEOC v. Hobson Bearing International, Inc., No. 3:16-cv-05034-SWH (W.D. Mo. Aug. 26, 2016)).
In a statement, EEOC’s St. Louis district director, James R. Neely, Jr., called the employer’s suit “an egregious attempt to undermine her rights.”
“Employers need to realize EEOC will vigorously challenge such retaliation and intimidation,” Andrea G. Baran, EEOC’s regional attorney in St. Louis, added. “We are very pleased that Hobson Bearing acknowledged, albeit belatedly, the prohibition against suing employees for malicious prosecution when they invoke their absolute right to file a discrimination charge.”