A Carroll County woman won a $277,000 sex-discrimination settlement from Lehigh Cement Co. after claiming its male employees had continually harassed her, made lewd gestures and even imitated sexual acts when she bent over.
Amanda Stevens, 28, who had worked four years as a laborer at Lehigh, won the settlement in a federal suit filed on her behalf by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
“It was horrendous for her to go through this,” said Maria Salacuse, an EEOC lawyer.
As part of the settlement, Lehigh also must distribute to all employees at its Union Bridge plant procedures for reporting discrimination, including a new toll-free telephone line. Employees could report discrimination only in writing in the past.
For each of the next three years, the settlement also requires Lehigh to train its Carroll County managers and employees in federal laws against harassment, discrimination and retaliation.
Stevens said her friends helped her through the harassment.
“I can?t put into words how blessed I am to have had the support of my friends,” she said in a statement. “The outcome is a step in the right direction for the improvement of treatment for those who are afraid to speak up.”
Salacuse said other women at Lehighface discrimination but were afraid to join the lawsuit.
When Stevens complained to management that co-workers scratched sexual obscenities into the paint of her car, called her derogatory names and filled her hard hat with mud, she was called a “rat” and a “big baby,” according to the EEOC.
Stevens works at a different company now but is considering moving out of Union Bridge, where she grew up, Salacuse said.
Lehigh, which in court filings denied Stevens? claims, did not return calls for comment.
The company, which employees 6,000 people in the United States and Canada, said in court documents that it settled to avoid the time and costs of a trial.
