Wednesday, May 26, 1999 | 9:12 a.m.
Eagle-Picher Minerals Inc. of Reno signed the agreement with the Labor Department resolving the allegations the company discriminated against women at its operations in Lovelock, Nev., federal officials announced Tuesday.
The $92,471 is to be divided equally among 49 women who applied for laborer jobs. The company has agreed to offer employment to the women until at least 13 have been hired.
It also agreed to train managers and employees to prevent sexual harassment after federal investigators found some female workers had been subjected to sexual harassment by male co-workers, Labor Department officials said.
"We will not tolerate any form of discrimination or sexual harassment in the workplace," Bernard E. Anderson, assistant U.S. labor secretary for employment standards, said Tuesday in announcing the settlement.
U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman said the agreement should serve as a warning to other violators.
"The pay gap between men and women will persist as long as companies refuse to consider women equally," Herman said in a statement issued by the department's regional office in San Francisco.
"I urge businesses to look at their hiring and compensation programs and to ensure that qualified women are not excluded from jobs or promotions because of gender," she said.
A spokesman for Eagle-Picher Minerals in Reno said Tuesday there was no one immediately available to comment. He referred calls to corporate headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. Those calls were not immediately returned.
Labor Department officials said the charges resulted from a routine compliance review that began last July.
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs found that Eagle-Picher - a federal contractor - had denied equal employment opportunity to female applicants even though they had equal or greater qualifications.
The review also uncovered the allegations female employees had been subjected to sexual harassment.
Eagle-Picher Minerals is a subsidiary of Eagle-Picher Industries, which has aerospace contracts with the Department of Defense totaling nearly $2 million.
The company mines plankton, a chalk-like substance, from the soil for use primarily in making filters. It's plankton surface mine in Lovelock employs 150 people.
In addition to the settlement, Eagle-Picher has agreed to compensate the women who are hired to new jobs for retroactive seniority and lost benefits valued at $70,333. The 13 women will be hired to laborer jobs with annual salaries totaling $196,053, the Labor Department said.
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