Fed Accused of Discrimination by 4 Employees in Class Action

Four black legal secretaries at the Federal Reserve Board, including the secretary to the Fed’s general counsel, filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday that accuses the agency of racial discrimination in pay and promotions.

The four women charged that “discriminatory practices by white supervisors and officials at the Fed have deprived them of raises, promotions and bonuses that they otherwise would have received,” according to the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court.

The lawsuit asks the court for certification as a class action on behalf of 200 minority secretaries at the Fed’s Washington headquarters.

African American secretaries are paid less and receive smaller bonuses than white secretaries for the same work, according to the complaint.

A Fed spokesman said the agency did not have any immediate comment on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims that the top officials and supervisors at the Fed are almost all white, and that minority employees are denied equal treatment.

“Minority employees have simply not been given their fair share for equal work performed,” the lawsuit said. Workers who complain are forced to leave the agency, it claimed.

The four secretaries who filed the lawsuit were joined by six others who asked the court for the right to join the case. The 10 women have worked a combined 70 years or so at the Fed.

The secretaries had filed an administrative complaint with the equal employment opportunity office at the Fed last year, and the agency rejected their claim in June.

According to the lawsuit filed Tuesday, black secretaries are denied opportunities to earn overtime money compared with whites, are burdened with more “overflow” work and are given less chance to learn new computer systems.

“The annual performance ratings consistently favor white persons,” the lawsuit alleged. “The ratings are made by predominantly white supervisors, and then submitted for annual performance evaluation and raise and bonus calculations to the division head, who is, in every division with the exception of the custodial division, white.”

Cynthia Artis, one of the plaintiffs, is secretary to Virgil Mattingly, the agency’s general counsel. Artis has a job that traditionally “was always paid the highest of all the secretaries in the division,” according to the complaint.

However, lower-ranked secretaries and others with less tenure make more money than she does and “all of these anomalies are attributable to racial discrimination,” the lawsuit alleged.

After settlement talks between the Fed and the secretaries were unsuccessful, Artis was the subject of reprisals, the complaint claims. The complaint alleges she was “maliciously and falsely charged with security violations, lying and was admonished, censured and proposed for removal from her job.”

She and the other secretaries arranged routinely for visitors to enter the Fed’s underground parking garage, notifying the guards of people who were coming to the building.

“No special permission was ever required, nor were any written sign-in records kept, nor was any video or other security measure in effect, ever,” the lawsuit alleged.

Artis was accused of violating security procedures in connection with a visit to the building by the attorney representing her and the other secretaries. She was threatened with loss of her security clearance and possible loss of her job, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit asks for pay, unspecified damages for each member of the class and requests an additional $5 million in damages for Artis for the alleged reprisal.