Elevator Manufacturer Pays Women Wrongfully Overlooked in the Hiring Process

Last week, ThyssenKrupp Elevator Manufacturing Inc. settled a sex discrimination case by paying $288,333 to 248 female job applicants after a compliance review from the Department of Labor found that it violated Executive Order 11246 by discriminating against female applicants for assembler/packer and utility positions. As part of the settlement, ThyssenKrupp also agreed to hire from the pool of affected women when jobs become available.

These measures reflect ThyssenKrupp's interest in maintaining its $15.1 million Federal contract with the General Services Administration — a contract they face losing if they continue to violate federal civil rights laws prohibiting employers from discriminating on the basis of gender, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

ThyssenKrupp will also work with the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) to review and monitor its employment practices, to ensure full compliance with the law, and to immediately correct any current discriminatory practices.

Although it has been over four decades since the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the signing of Executive Order 11246, women continue to be passed over for jobs and promotions for which they are qualified; to be paid less than men for equal work; to be sexually harassed on the job; and to be disadvantaged in numerous other ways based not on their abilities or their qualifications but on the fact that they are female. The National Women's Law Center applauds this aggressive enforcement of anti-discrimination laws and hopes that other companies will address discrimination without the threat of a Department of Labor lawsuit.