By Wall Street Journal
Female employees say little has changed three years after the Denver branch of the U.S. Mint agreed to make its work environment less hostile toward women, according to a filing Monday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.In 2003, 71 women -- more than half the mint's female staff -- alleged in a petition to the mint's Equal Employment Opportunity officer that women employees were called derogatory names, and new female workers were subjected to suggestive comments. The women also alleged that the Denver office housed secret stashes of sex magazines and an attic where men could peruse them.
Thirty-two of the women later took the matter to the EEOC as a class action. A settlement agreement in August 2006 mandated anti-discrimination programs aimed at promoting women. The settlement required that an independent monitor be put in place to oversee the programs, as well as disciplinary matters, among other things, the filing said.
The magazines are gone, but Monday's confidential filing, reviewed by the Journal, alleges that the atmosphere at the mint is still hostile toward female employees, with supervisors who "blatantly disregard the settlement agreement and who discriminate and retaliate against females [and] are never disciplined."
An EEOC spokesman wouldn't confirm or deny the filing. The U.S. Mint wasn't aware of the filing, said spokesman Greg Hernandez. He said the settlement had not been breached "in any way. The United States Mint believes it is in full compliance, and always has been in full compliance, with the settlement agreement," Mr. Hernandez said in a statement.
Lynn Feiger, the attorney representing the class of women, declined to comment.
San Jose employment discrimination lawyer Steven Cohn believes if the case were subject to California employment law, involving a California employment lawyer, then serious repercussions could result.
In their filing, the women seek to order the mint to comply with the agreement and to extend the stay of the monitor, whose term is set to expire in September, by at least two years.
According to the filing, when a female supervisor tried to prevent a male worker from stopping work early, he said, "What do you want me to do? Play with it all afternoon?" making an anatomical reference. Despite the worker's past record of sexual harassment, his supervisor's bosses didn't permit the man to be effectively disciplined, the filing said. Another female supervisor tried to discipline a male worker for walking off a shift. The woman's superiors removed the man's letter of reprimand from his file and the woman was disciplined for failing to keep him at work, the filing said. San Jose business lawyer Cohn says that, if true, this allegation represents a "flagrant violation of policy and judgment."
The monitor, Kathryn Miller, has spent at least 15 hours a week at the mint for two years, issuing reports that increasingly express concern the agency isn't adhering to its agreement, according to the filing. The agency's response to Ms. Miller has, at times, been "hostile and outright antagonistic," the filing said. Ms. Miller didn't return calls seeking comment.
