Ford Faces Female Workers’ Class Action

Ford Motor Co. must face a class-action suit brought by female auto workers who contend they were targets of discrimination and sexual harassment, a federal judge ruled. Ford recently reached an agreement with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to establish a $7.5-million fund to pay workers hired since 1996 at its Chicago stamping and assembly plants who can prove they were sexually harassed, and to spend $10 million to prevent on-the-job discrimination and to raise the number of female managers in the Chicago plants. Ford contended that the agreement settled suits brought by several female employees and precluded further class actions. But U.S. District Judge Elaine E. Bucklo in Chicago disagreed, granting class-action status to claims brought by 850 women employed at the Chicago plants since Dec. 2, 1993. Ford said it may appeal. In the most recent cases, several women said they were “subjected to unwanted or unwelcome sexual advances, touching, comments of a sexual nature,” according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers.