Bank Will Pay $400,000 in Sexual Harassment Suit

A Taiwanese-American banking executive has won a $400,000 settlement from a Chinatown bank whose president once introduced her as “vice president in the real estate and sex department.”

Peggy Joslyn, 39, on Monday called the settlement of her sexual harassment retaliation suit against General Bank a victory for Asian women still struggling for acceptance among their corporate peers.

One of Largest of Kind

“For Asian-American women, silence has been broken. It is time we walked side-by-side with men, not three steps behind,” Joslyn told a Los Angeles press conference announcing the settlement, one of the largest ever recorded in a sexual harassment retaliation case.

The case, launched after Joslyn lost her $36,000-a-year vice presidency at the bank shortly after settling a sexual harassment complaint in 1982, “is another step in the battle to end the unfair stereotyping of Asian-American women as passive and subservient,” her attorney, Gloria Allred, said.

The lawyer added that the case was “important, because many working women fear that if they protest sexual harassment at their place of employment, they may be retaliated against and lose their job.”

Li-Pei Wu, hired as president of General Bank long after the lawsuit was filed, said the bank decided to settle the case “as a business decision” in which it admitted no wrongdoing.

“As far as an institution, I do not think either Asian-American community or Caucasian community are any different,” Wu added. “We all realize and recognize that sexual discrimination is not right, and as an institution, we do not have such thing.”

Joslyn was hired by what was then the General Bank of Commerce as vice president/loan officer in August, 1980, after more than seven years of experience at Bank of America.

Subtle Propositions

She said she became the target of “very, very subtle, but very, very consistent” sexual propositions from her immediate supervisor, an attitude she said was reflected by other bank executives.

A male co-worker suggested that she was best suited to a job as a “high-class call girl,” she said. The former president of the bank introduced her to a group of traveling executives from other banks as “vice president of the real estate and sex department.” Her performance evaluation criticized her for being “too assertive.”

She was fired after complaining to bank executives, then rehired in July, 1981, as part of a settlement in the discrimination and sexual harassment complaint she filed with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing. Two months later, however, she was laid off by bank officials, who said the bank was losing money.

In her suit, Joslyn noted that she was the only loan officer who was laid off and a man was hired to replace her within a few weeks.

Bank’s Contention

General Bank’s attorney, Martin Spear, said Joslyn was laid off because she had less experience as a loan officer than the others on staff.

“If there was any discriminatory behavior on the part of the bank, she wouldn’t have made vice president,” he said.

Joslyn said she eventually started her own mortgage brokerage business.

“Once you’re fired not once, but twice, by the same employer, it’s very difficult to find a job in the banking industry, she said.

“It’s been a very long struggle--five years,” she said of the settlement, reached last week. “My first reaction was, I want to tell my daughter. I was just happy I could prove to my daughter . . . I kept telling her that if you do your job well, if you do the right thing, then there is justice.”