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by Ellen Yacknin

PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF:

SEX DISCRIMINATION CASE WINS BIG

One of the largest sex discrimination cases ever to reach a courtroom is taking place across the river in Newark, New Jersey. The women plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed six years ago against Western Electric Company. Well over 2,000 of them have already been declared victors! The only issue left to determine is how much money Western Electric must pay the women to make up for its past sexually discriminatory practices. The final figure may easily add up to several million dollars, becoming one of the biggest sums ever awarded in a sex discrimination

case.

The suit, which since became a class action, began as an individual complaint by Cleo Kyriazi, one of the few female industrial engineers employed at Western Electric, a subsidiary of AT&T. In the late 1960's, Ms. Kyriazi began complaining to her superiors that she was unfairly being passed over for promotions in favor of much less experienced men. Rather than giving her

a promotion, her employers and coworkers responded by subjecting her to cruel sexual jokes about her weight and appearance.

By 1970, as Ms. Kyriazi continued to complain about the discriminatory treatment against her, her employers started to tape record secretly their conversations with her to help in case she filed a law suit against them. Then in August 1971, Ms. Kyriazi's supervisor told her that her belief that she was the object of discrimination could mean only one thing: that she was crazy.

By that time, Ms. Kyriazi felt she had only one option left. She filed a complaint with the New JerseyDivision of Equal Rights. When the hearing was held, Western Electric acted true to form: they fired her! Although the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ultimately held that she was discriminated against, the EEOC decided not to file a suit on Ms. Kyriazi's behalf. Not until 1972 did Ms. Kyriazi hire an attorney to help her, Judith Vladeck from New York.

Ms. Vladeck took over the case, and became more and more angry at the contemptuous way Western Electric stalled and played dilatory games at every step of the way.

Haripur AS

Harrisburg Area Women's News

by

October, 1979

Reading Woman Wins

Ellen Yacknin

Sexual Harassment Case

On July 19, Kristi Fey Napoleon of Reading, Pennsylvania became the second woman in the state to win unemployment compensation when she left her job after being sexually harassed by her boss. first woman, Karen B., won her case a little over a year before the decision in Ms. Napoleon's case was handed down.

The

Ms. Napoleon had been a floral designer in a small floral shop in Wyomissing for 11⁄2 years before she became unemployed. In the summer of 1976, her employer made improper advances toward her while at a hotel during an overnight business trip. Ms. Napoleon's boss continued to harass her sexually after they returned for the next few months. being able to take her employer's conduct anymore, Ms. Napoleon told him that she could not continue to work under those circumstances. Her boss, the store's owner, gave her one option: to look for another job. Ms. Napoleon immediately resigned and applied for unemployment

She persisted, however, and in 1976, Ms. Vladeck discovered, with the proverbial combination of good luck and hard work, the "smoking gun".

Not

Rummaging through the crates full of personnel files to find evidence of company-wide discrimination, one of Ms. Vladeck's consultants noticed that several stacks of placement lists all had staple. marks and wisps of paper still attached, as if something had been ripped off. Suspicious, the consultant checked the other documents and found three which had been missed. The documents were personnel requisition forms, and the "missing pages" included boxes for department heads to fill out, asking which sex employee they preferred: male or female. This was just the evidence Ms. Vladeck needed to prove that Western Electric discriminated against not just Ms. Kyriazi, but against virtually all its women employees, in its practices of hiring, promotion, training programs, slotting women's jobs, and layoffs.

The statistics were outrageous: only 1.9% of the 735 officers and managers were female; of 545 professionals, only 6.8% were female, and that number included nurses and secretaries; from 1967 to 1976, there were 141 jobs for which only men were hired and 47 jobs for which only women were hired.

Western Electric responded with flimsy excuses. Women were funneled into low-grade jobs, they said, because they could earn more through piecework. Women were not promoted, they said, because they weren't interested. Rejecting these and other ludicrous arguments Judge Herbert Stern held unambiguously that Western Electric "systematically denied

compensation benefits in November,

1976.

The Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation Board of Review (UCBR) initially denied Ms. Napoleon's claim, stating that she was guilty of "willful misconduct". The morning she received the news, Ms. Napoleon called the Reading Chapter of NOW, and was referred to a local attorney and NOW member, Barbara Hart. After two years of legal appeals and rehearings, the UCBR reversed its own decision of two years ago, holding that Ms. Napoleon's conditions of employment were intolerable, and she was therefore eligible for unemployment compensation after leaving her job.

Ms. Napoleon's successful fight against sexual harassment became known when she wrote the Reading NOW chapter, thanking them for their help. "I hope that in doing this," she wrote, "the next woman to step forward when unjustly treated will not have to wait three years."

women opportunities it afforded to men", and exposed "the very attitudes which produced discrimination."

The trial is not over, though, because of a Western Electric maneuver which has forced all damages to be decided on a case-by-case basis. With well over 2000 women involved, the last damages determination will probably not be made for another 5 years. But when the last docket is closed, the women at Western Electric will certainly emerge as winners.

For its past, Western Electric, which has already spent over $1 million in attorneys' fees (considered peanuts by the company) plans to appeal. The only statement the company issued reads in part: "The company has a vigorous affirmative action program at all its locations, and it is dedicated to achieving equal opportunity for minorities and women.

So much for dedication.

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