In September 2002, the EEOC district office in St. Louis, Missouri brought this suit against Groendyke Transport, Inc., a national tanker truck carrier, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. Although the complaint is unavailable, the EEOC Litigation Settlement Report states that a former female employee alleged that the defendant unlawfully discriminated against her because of her sex in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Specifically, she alleged that on of the defendant's supervisors created a sexually hostile work environment by appearing partially undressed, commenting on her body, and making sexual comments. Two months after a stipulated protective order was denied in January 2003, the parties settled and a consent decree was entered in March.

In the consent decree, the parties agreed that the defendant would refrain from retaliating and discriminating on the basis of sex, pay the female $150,000, issue a neutral reference letter, place a memo of the alleged sexual harassment in the allegedly offending supervisor's file, provide EEO training to all management employees in the HR department, post the consent decree, remind all employees of its EEO and harassment policies, and submit semiannual complaint reports. No fees or costs were awarded. The terms of the decree ran for two years.

Joel Pettit - 07/05/2007


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