New York contractor settles Kauai sex harassment suit

A New York-based contractor at Kauai’s Pacific Missile Range Facility will pay $215,000 to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit filed by two firefighters, the federal government said Thursday.

The 18-page settlement was announced Thursday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the firefighters in June 2010, against ITT Corp., a high-technology engineering and manufacturing company that has a Navy contract to provide base support services.

In an email, ITT said it denied "any unlawful conduct."

The plaintiffs alleged that male co-workers and supervisors subjected Melissa Pacheco to overtly sexual remarks and drawings. Pacheco was the first woman hired as a firefighter, in 1995, at Barking Sands and is one of two female firefighters in ITT’s private firefighting service at the base on Kauai’s west side.

Despite her objections, Pacheco was forced to watch "sexually explicit cable television programs" at work in 2006, EEOC officials said.

Pacheco said she was subjected to "to sexually charged and/or suggestive speech" and "unwelcome sexual comments regarding sex paraphernalia and sex acts." She also said her office portrait was defaced "with sexually suggestive symbols."

Although she complained about the sexual harassment, management failed to recognize the problem and respond in a manner consistent with federal law, resulting in "a hostile work environment," according to the EEOC. Instead, Pacheco was reassigned and disciplined. Pacheco will receive $120,000.

The complaint also said co-worker Harvey Kauahi, a union steward who helped Pacheco with her civil rights complaint, was reassigned in August 2007 in retaliation for opposing the harassment. Kauahi was transferred to another shift so he could no longer assist her with her complaint or witness the "continued harassment," the complaint said. Kauahi was awarded $50,000.

The company will also create a $45,000 outreach fund to recruit women into firefighter positions at Pacific Missile Range Facility.

ITT spokesman George Rhynedance said the company "does not agree with the EEOC’s characterization of this matter in their press release and denies any unlawful conduct."

"We are fully committed to ensuring a workplace free from all forms of discrimination and harassment. We take matters of this nature very seriously and have pursued an equitable outcome for all parties since the original complaint. In fact, the charging parties have remained ITT employees since filing their charges in 2007 and 2008, and we believe that early resolution of the matter is in the best interest of the entire program. ITT views the outreach fund as a constructive outcome for the parties and looks forward to engaging in the process going forward."

ITT, with 500 workers, is one of the largest employers on the Garden Island and entered into a three-year consent decree providing for monetary relief for the two victims.

The decree also requires training for all ITT personnel assigned to Barking Sands on laws regarding discrimination, harassment and retaliation.

The company will also administer internal policies on the handling of complaints about such misconduct, and designate an equal employment opportunity compliance officer to assist with these efforts.

The EEOC will monitor ITT’s compliance with the decree and its handling of any sexual harassment and/or retaliation complaints received at the facility during the decree’s duration.