A Female Air Force Employee Will be Paid $490,000 in the Settlement Of a Sexual Discrimination lawsuit.
BEALE AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – The Air Force has agreed to give a career civilian nearly half a million dollars and a promotion to settle a sexual discrimination suit.
In the lead up to a federal court trial March 11, 2008 the Air Force settled the suit, filed by Beale Air Force Base employee Suzanne Mertes. She was born on the base, has worked there since 1979 and continues to work in a transportation support division.
The settlement does not mean the Air Force admits liability for Mertes’ sexual discrimination claims, said a spokeswoman for Sacramento’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, which represented the Air Force.
Mertes said she was called a “typical blue-collar type,” a bitch, a troublemaker and “not management material,” according to the Appeal-Democrat newspaper in Marysville, Calif. This, among other things, appears to have created a hostile and intimadating environment and made it impossible for her to perform her duties.
She will also be promoted to a supervisor position and receive $490,000. According to Mertes’ suit, she worked in a male-dominated environment that did not condone female supervisors.
Showing posts with label Sexual Harassment.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sexual Harassment.. Show all posts
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
Looking At A Woman's Breasts Can Create A Hostile Environment.
The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that a federal jury should be allowed to consider a lawsuit brought by a female secretary against the Grafton, Massachusetts town administrator in which she complained that her boss created a hostile work environment by frequently staring at her breasts, a federal appeals court ruled today.
The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV erred when he sided with the town and the retired town administrator, Russell J. Connor Jr., and dismissed the suit by Nancy M. Billings on the defendants' motion for summary judgment.
The three-member appeals court panel said that Billings' suit had raised serious claims of sexual harassment, including that Connor had created a hostile work environment by staring at the breasts of several town employees and had retaliated against Billings for complaining to the board of selectmen by transferring her to another municipal job.
"Taken in the light most favorable to Billings, the evidence depicts a supervisor who regularly stared at her breasts for much of the two and a half years they worked together," the appeals court said in its 42-page decision.
"Based on these and other aspects of Billings's response to Connor's alleged staring, we disagree with the defendants that no reasonable jury could conclude that the staring unreasonably interfered with her work performance or altered the terms and conditions of her employment as a matter of law," the appeals court added.
The appeals court said that a hostile work environment is an imprecise term under federal law but that it need not include touching, sexual advances or overtly sexual comments.
"We cannot reasonably accept...that a man's repeated staring at a woman's breasts is to be ordinarily understood as anything other than sexual," the court said.
Connor retired as town administrator in February 2006. The court referred the case back to Saylor, allowing the suit to proceed.
The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV erred when he sided with the town and the retired town administrator, Russell J. Connor Jr., and dismissed the suit by Nancy M. Billings on the defendants' motion for summary judgment.
The three-member appeals court panel said that Billings' suit had raised serious claims of sexual harassment, including that Connor had created a hostile work environment by staring at the breasts of several town employees and had retaliated against Billings for complaining to the board of selectmen by transferring her to another municipal job.
"Taken in the light most favorable to Billings, the evidence depicts a supervisor who regularly stared at her breasts for much of the two and a half years they worked together," the appeals court said in its 42-page decision.
"Based on these and other aspects of Billings's response to Connor's alleged staring, we disagree with the defendants that no reasonable jury could conclude that the staring unreasonably interfered with her work performance or altered the terms and conditions of her employment as a matter of law," the appeals court added.
The appeals court said that a hostile work environment is an imprecise term under federal law but that it need not include touching, sexual advances or overtly sexual comments.
"We cannot reasonably accept...that a man's repeated staring at a woman's breasts is to be ordinarily understood as anything other than sexual," the court said.
Connor retired as town administrator in February 2006. The court referred the case back to Saylor, allowing the suit to proceed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
