EEOC orders Corning to pay $120K to settle sex bias suit
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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Friday that Corning Inc. will pay $120,000 and furnish other relief to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit brought by the commission.
In addition to the monetary relief, the three-year consent decree resolving the suit requires the technology company to provide enhanced anti-discrimination training, with a focus on hiring; revise its equal employment opportunity policies; modify its line lead hiring processes; and receive and investigate complaints of discrimination and retaliation and report the same to the EEOC.
The EEOC will monitor Corning’s compliance with these obligations for the next three years, the commission said in a statement.
The commission’s lawsuit alleged that Corning violated federal law by failing to promote female “process assistants” or machine operators, at its Sullivan Park and Big Flats locations in south central New York, according to the statement.
Corning allegedly groomed male process assistants for advancement, provided them with greater training opportunities, and bent its own eligibility rules to place them in line lead positions instead of similarly or more qualified women.
Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from discriminating based on sex.
The EEOC filed suit, EEOC v. Corning Inc., Civil Action No. 6:21-cv-06745, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York in December 2021 under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, after first trying to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process, the statement said.
“The EEOC appreciates Corning’s willingness to make critical changes to its line lead hiring process, changes that we believe will lead to the advancement of qualified employees regardless of their sex,” Jeffrey Burstein, EEOC regional attorney for the New York District Office, said in the statement.
