South Greensburg steel fabricator settles sex harassment suit for $80,000

A South Greensburg steel fabricator agreed to pay $80,000 to a fired female welder.

The worker claimed co-workers harassed her with sexist remarks, that a foreman told her to clean feces in the women’s bathroom that her co-workers had dirtied, and then was fired four days after revealing she had filed a complaint with the government, a federal agency said Tuesday.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Moore & Morford Inc., at 1030 Broad St., agreed to the payment as part of the settlement approved on Monday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan in Pittsburgh.

Under the terms of a two-year consent decree with the EEOC, $40,000 of the settlement with Moore & Morford would be for back pay and $40,000 would be for compensatory damages for her emotional distress.

Moore & Morford also agreed to report to the EEOC on its hiring of women and any future complaints of sex discrimination, harassment or retaliation it receives. The company must distribute a revised anti-discrimination policy and complaint procedure, train its employees on Title VII, and conduct additional training on investigating complaints of discrimination and retaliation.

James P. Morford, company president and signer of the consent decree, declined to comment on Wednesday.

The company denied any liability in the response it filed in August, and the consent decree is not an admission of any guilt, according to the EEOC. The company said in its August filing in response to the EEOC suit that the former employee was not entitled to any back pay or forward pay and would have been terminated based on “acquired evidence.”

The EEOC said it filed the lawsuit after it was unable to settle the suit during negotiations with the company.

The EEOC said the sexist remarks and sexually offensive conduct aimed at the victim — the company’s only female welder at the time — were in addition to the alleged actions of some men in the shop who “manipulated steel beams and equipment to threaten her safety.”

When she reported the harassment to the ownership, her foreman allegedly treated her worse, grabbing her by the shirt collar and denying her tools and equipment to do her job, the EEOC said. Co-workers also dirtied her bathroom and personal belongings, the EEOC said.

The EEOC charged that Moore & Morford’s managers and owners knew about the sexual harassment and failed to stop it. Days after telling the owners she contacted EEOC and began to file a discrimination charge, Moore & Morford retaliated against her by firing her, EEOC alleged.

According to the EEOC, the company’s actions violated the Civil Rights Act that bans harassment and discrimination.

“Despite important strides in historically male-dominated industries like heavy manufacturing, women continue to fight for equal treatment and against outmoded stereotypes about women’s role in the workplace,” said EEOC Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence.