Labor & Employment Law — 11/10/09

Danella Construction to pay $200,000, provide portable toilets for women to settle sex bias suit

A Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, utility contractor that specializes in the telephone, gas, electrical and water industries has agreed to pay $200,000 and furnish significant remedial relief to settle a sex discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed under Title VII by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced November 4, 2009. The company will also make portable toilets available to female workers.

Danella Construction Corporation of Pennsylvania, a subsidiary of Danella Companies, refused to allow Lisa Drozdowski to apply to a laborer position because of her sex, the EEOC alleged in a lawsuit filed in July 2008 (EDPa, No. 08-3349). Drozdowski, of Levittown, Pennsylvania, worked as a flagger for Danella and assisted the crew by also performing laborer duties. Despite her good job performance, company supervisors repeatedly rejected her attempts to apply for a substantially higher-paying laborer position and even advised her that female employees cannot be laborers, the EEOC said.

Other female employees were not hired as laborers because of their sex while the company hired male applicants with little or no experience as laborers, according to the federal agency. The company also failed to provide portable restroom facilities at some work sites, which sometimes forced women to urinate outside in public.

After Drozdowski complained about discriminatory treatment, Danella, in retaliation for her complaint, drastically reduced her work hours and then stopped assigning her any work even though the company continued to hire applicants for flagger positions, the EEOC asserted.

The two-year consent decree settling the case will provide $150,000 in monetary relief to Drozdowski and $50,000 to four other class members. The decree also provides substantial equitable relief that includes enjoining Danella from discriminating based on sex or retaliation and requiring Danella to make adequate portable toilets available for all its female employees at its work sites. The company must also provide annual training for all managers and supervisors at its Plymouth Meeting facility regarding employee rights and employer responsibilities under Title VII, and post a notice regarding the settlement. Danella did not admit liability in the consent decree, which is pending judicial approval.

“Even in traditionally male-dominated fields like the construction industry, employers must give qualified female applicants and employees equal opportunities to compete for and receive higher-paying positions,” said District Director Marie M. Tomasso of the EEOC’s Philadelphia district office, which oversees Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland, and parts of New Jersey and Ohio.

“We commend Danella for taking these proactive measures, including having adequate restroom facilities at its construction sites, to ensure that female employees are treated with the dignity that all employees deserve,” added Acting Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence of the EEOC’s Philadelphia district office.

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