A First in Fighting Abuse on Job : Federal class-action suit is welcome step against sex harassment
The federal government’s sexual harassment lawsuit against the management of a Mitsubishi automobile factory breaks new ground for Washington. This problem should have been approached in such a forceful manner long ago.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is alleging that abuse of women was so pervasive at the plant that it formed the basis for class action. The class-action suit filed this week is the first federal move of this kind directed at sexual harassment and is believed to be the largest sexual harassment case ever against a private company.
The EEOC declared that hundreds of women employees of the Normal, Ill., plant of Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America were routinely subjected to sexual abuse by male co-workers and supervisors. The commission conducted a 15-month investigation in which 100 former and current female employees were interviewed. Its report said that Mitsubishi managers had repeatedly been made aware of the problem but failed to stop the abuses, which women workers claimed included groping, crude graffiti and derogatory epithets. In some cases, EEOC officials said, women were coerced into performing sex acts with managers. Mitsubishi has denied the allegations.
The EEOC lawsuit is noteworthy on two fronts. In the past, government sexual harassment suits typically have been filed against an individual or two for allegedly harassing a woman or a small number of women on the job. The EEOC said that more than 500 potential claimants could be eligible for $300,000 each in compensatory and punitive damages in the suit against Mitsubishi. Secondly, the EEOC charged that incidents at the factory constituted “a pattern and practice”; it alleged that Mitsubishi allowed the sexual harassment to go on as “standard operating procedure.” In the past, the EEOC has applied its “pattern and practice” standard only to cases involving discriminatory hiring, promotion or other illegal employment practices or policies.
The EEOC’s first class-action sexual harassment suit may embolden victims elsewhere to join together to seek relief from behavior that has no place in factories, or elsewhere for that matter.
