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EEOC sues medical device maker for hiring discrimination, retaliation

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EEOC sues medical device maker for hiring discrimination, retaliation

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued medical device and equipment manufacturer PMT Corp. for allegedly refusing to hire women and older job applicants and retaliating against its former human resources manager for reporting the discrimination to federal officials.

The EEOC sued the Chanhassen, Minn.-based manufacturer March 5 in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis for violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the agency said in a statement.

According to the lawsuit, PMT Corp. President and CEO Alfred Iversen allegedly directed hiring managers to exclude female employees and job applicants from consideration for sales positions, as well as screen out job applications and resumes from candidates over 40 years old.

An investigation by the EEOC revealed that the company hired at least 70 sales representatives between January 2007 and late 2010, none of whom were women or above the age of 40.

“We have identified witnesses who allegedly heard Mr. Iversen complain that 'women in sales is a 100% failure rate,' and that women were a 'failure at travel' necessary for the sales position,” EEOC Chicago District Director John Rowe, who oversaw the agency's investigation, said in the statement.

Additionally, the EEOC's lawsuit accuses Mr. Iversen of creating an “objectively intolerable” work environment for Patricia Lebens, the former human resources manager who first alerted the EEOC to company's alleged discrimination, to the extent that she felt compelled to resign from the company. Following her resignation, the company filed felony theft charges against Ms. Lebens with the Carver County, Minn., Sheriff's Office — which were dropped following an investigation — allegedly in retaliation for her complaints to the EEOC, the lawsuit stated.

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“The false theft accusation was clearly intended to dissuade anyone else from doing the right thing and cooperating with EEOC,” John Hendrickson, the EEOC's regional attorney in Chicago, said in the agency's statement. “It doesn't take rocket science to figure out that the EEOC cannot go about its business of combating employment discrimination if we don't step up to protect and defend those who bring their complaints to us.”

In a separate federal lawsuit filed in February, a former sales representative also accused PMT of retaliating against him for providing information during the EEOC's investigation.

“We totally deny the whole thing, and we'll fight it,” Mr. Iversen said in a phone interview with Business Insurance. “There are many issues at play here, and we plan to bring all of those issues out in our case at trial.”