Weekly interest and loan rates | Home values Northwest stock contest 2004 | Consumer affairs

Financial settlement reached in Boeing gender bias lawsuit

By Shirleen Holt and David Bowermaster
Seattle Times business reporters

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

Boeing yesterday reached a financial settlement in a class-action suit brought by 28,000 current and former female workers in the Puget Sound area.

The suit alleged that before 2000, women employees started at lower wages than men, continued to earn less with every percentage-based pay increase, and were denied job training and promotions.

Boeing confirmed the settlement late yesterday, but would not disclose the details or the sum involved. Attorneys for the women bringing the suit could not be reached for comment.

Jury selection in the case had been scheduled to start on Monday.

Still unresolved are the nonfinancial issues in the case, according to a statement from Boeing. The two sides agreed to take up to 45 days to finish negotiations on those issues, which may include changes to company policies and employment practices. If they can't reach agreement by that deadline, a trial will be scheduled on those issues.

Both sides have agreed not to comment on the terms until the settlement is approved in total by U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle.

The settlement covers only Puget Sound-area workers, and not the women in Tulsa, Okla., who brought a separate class-action suit against Boeing.

Beck v. Boeing would have been the largest gender-bias case to go to trial in the United States.

Others have been settled, sometimes just days before the start of a scheduled trial, and often for tens of millions of dollars.
 
The 12 named plaintiffs, whose jobs ranged from janitor to corporate sales representative, were suing for unspecified back pay and punitive damages.

The company has maintained that the allegations of bias are unfounded.

Avoiding trial would spare Boeing from potentially embarrassing testimony, including allegations that Boeing fostered a hostile workplace that devalued women; ignored complaints of unfair treatment, and allowed managers to retaliate against women for complaining.

It also would mean that former chairman and CEO Phil Condit will not have to appear in court. Condit, who resigned in December, and other top Boeing executives were slated to testify in person or through videotaped depositions.

A separate class-action discrimination suit against Boeing, this one brought by 1,850 Asian engineers and technical workers, is still slated to go to trial before U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik on Monday in Seattle.

Several other high-profile gender-discrimination cases involving large employers have settled for large sums. In 1992, State Farm ended 13 years of litigation by settling a discriminatory-hiring case for $250 million. That suit was brought by 814 women. A year later, Lucky Stores agreed to pay 20,000 female workers a total of $107 million.

The plaintiffs said Boeing knew of pay disparities as far back as 1994 but kept them a secret from the rank and file for fear of a class-action lawsuit.

In 1999, after government auditors found what one called a "pattern of discrimination," Boeing settled a potential lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Labor. It agreed to pay $4.5 million in back wages to 6,000 women and minorities.

Boeing had feared it could be on the hook in that case for $80 million to $120 million, former head of employee relations Marcella Fleming said at a taped company meeting. The transcript of the meeting was to have been introduced at the trial that was to begin Monday. Fleming also said Boeing committed $10 million that year to reduce the wage gaps.

Also in 1999, Boeing settled two class-action race-discrimination lawsuits involving African-American employees, for a combined $15 million.

Boeing has maintained that the claims do not reflect how the company does business.

"(Boeing) has been and will continue to be committed to promoting diversity in the workplace and equal opportunity for all its employees," spokesman Ken Mercer said this week.

Shirleen Holt: 206-464-8316 or sholt@seattletimes.com

David Bowermaster: 206-464-2724 or dbowermaster@seattletimes.com