09:53 PM ET 07/19/99
Woman Wins $21M From DaimlerChrysler
Woman Wins $21M From DaimlerChrysler
By JIM SUHR=
Associated Press Writer=
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) _ A jury awarded $21 million Monday to a
woman who claims she was sexually harassed for years in her job at
a Chrysler plant in Detroit.
Linda Gilbert alleged in a 1994 lawsuit that the automaker did
nothing to address her complaints that male co-workers placed
Polaroid images of male body parts and obscene cartoons where she
would see them, made sexually explicit comments and urinated on her
chair.
The company, now DaimlerChrysler, said an appeal was imminent,
arguing that ``holding a company liable for the isolated acts of
anonymous co-workers sets an impossible standard and a dangerous
precedent.''
``Under these rules, every bad joke or overheard remark can
become the basis for a multi-million-dollar lawsuit,'' Judith
Pickering, DaimlerChrysler's assistant general counsel, said in the
statement after the Wayne County jury announced its verdict in the
six-week trial. ``Ironically, verdicts like this weaken public
support for sexual harassment laws, undermining the very
protections they were meant to provide.''
The award includes $20 million for the embarrassment and other
emotional fallout Ms. Gilbert said she suffered since 1992 at the
Jefferson North Assembly Plant, where Jeep Grand Cherokees are
made. The remaining $1 million is for lost future income and
necessary medical and psychiatric care.
Ms. Gilbert, 39, accused the automaker of failing to investigate
and stop the harassment she said began when she first started
working at the Jefferson North plant in 1992. As a millwright, Ms.
Gilbert's job entails repairing machinery used in the plant.
``From that moment, she was harassed on a daily basis because of
her sex,'' said Geoffrey Fieger, Ms. Gilbert's attorney. ``It has
gone on unabated, continuously.''
Ms. Gilbert, who plans to return to work at the plant Tuesday or
Wednesday, said the harassment left her ``degraded, humiliated and
embarrassed'' but never winnowed her resolve to keep working there.
``It made it so I dreaded going to work every day, but I wasn't
going to quit,'' she said. ``I wasn't going to let them push me
out.''
Fieger said that each time his client complained to supervisors,
``the retaliation would get worse.''
But in its statement Monday, DaimlerChrysler said it took
``prompt action'' to investigate Ms. Gilbert's allegations ``even
though she refused to cooperate.''
In all but one instance, DaimlerChrysler said, Ms. Gilbert
refused to identify the suspected offender. In that one case, the
worker was reprimanded in writing and put on notice another offense
would cost him his job, the automaker said.
In all other cases, DaimlerChrysler said, the company ``put
employees on notice that this type of behavior would not be
tolerated.'' The automaker also said it agreed to transfer Ms.
Gilbert _ at her request _ to another work area in the plant on a
different shift.
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