DANVILLE, Va. — Goodyear and the U.S. Department of Labor have reached a $925,000 settlement in a sex discrimination lawsuit involving some 800 women who applied for entry-level jobs at Goodyear´s Danville plant.
An administrative law judge approved the consent decree Jan. 11. Besides paying the $925,000 to the class of women, the tire maker also agreed to hire up to 60 of those women who are still interested in working at the Danville facility.
According to the suit filed June 13, 2006, by the Labor Department´s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, Goodyear refused to hire the women when they applied for jobs at Danville between January 1998 and June 1999.
Under Executive Order 11246, federal contractors and subcontractors are forbidden from discriminating against prospective employees on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
"This consent decree ... puts federal contractors on notice that the Labor Department is serious about eliminating systemic discrimination," said Charles E. James Sr., deputy assistant secretary of labor for the OFCCP, in a press release.
Goodyear continues to deny any wrongdoing, in the settlement agreement or elsewhere. The tire maker settled to avoid the cost of further litigation, according to John Rhodes, Danville human resources manager.