Sex case settled

GREENSBORO — Freightliner and five female employees at the truck maker’s Cleveland plant have settled a sexual harassment suit out of court.

The agreement specifies that Freightliner does not admit engaging in any unlawful conduct, and the company specifically denies that sexual harassment occurred.

The decree says, however, that the women will receive a monetary settlement, though that information is “embodied in a separate agreement” which is not a part of the public court file.

In addition to the financial settlement, the consent decree says Freightliner must not discriminate against or harass anyone on the basis of sex or retaliate against anyone who files charges of harassment and must begin an anti-discrimination policy that includes annual training programs for both management and non-supervisory employees for three years.

Freightliner must also provide the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with semi-annual reports listing information about all people who have complained about sexual harassment and what action the company has taken. The court may monitor Freightliner’s compliance.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the suit on behalf of the women in June 1999, and a Dec. 19 consent decree ending the case has been filed in Greensboro in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

Todd Cline, of Donaldson & Black in Greensboro, attorney for Sandra Arrowood, Sherry Parks, Linda Moose, April Schultze and other “similarly situated” women who worked at Freightliner’s Cleveland plant, said he could not reveal the terms of the settlement. Nor did he notify the Post that it had happened, although at the beginning of the case he provided copious details about the complaints.

None of the women is available for comment.

The office of Freightliner’s corporate spokesperson, Debi Nicholson, is closed for the holiday week, along with the rest of corporate headquarters.

The class action suit came up under new Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines on harassment liability published in 1999 saying employers are legally responsible for the sexual misconduct of supervisors even if they knew nothing about the behavior.

On Nov. 8, Freightliner filed a motion to enforce the settlement agreement, saying that both sides in the dispute met and agreed to a settlement, including “a strict confidentiality agreement” that was handwritten on the spot by the mediator, and signed by all parties.

But later, when presented with a formal written settlement, Linda Moose, one of the women who filed a claim against Freightliner, refused to sign. Freightliner’s attorneys asked a judge to require Moose to sign.

It is not clear from the records whether she signed or not.