NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the Ford Motor Co. truck assembly plant on behalf of three female assembly line workers who said they were sexually harassed at work for nearly three years.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court on behalf of Deidre S. Gutierrez, Tina M. Hampton and Tiffany Simpson. The three women said they would come to work to find condoms, panties and crude notes at their workstations.
The women reported the incidents, but Ford did nothing about it, the lawsuit claims.
"It is critical that employee reports of unlawful harassment be taken seriously," said Herbert Brown, director of the EEOC's Norfolk office. "Ford repeatedly ignored these women's complaints. That is not acceptable."
The company, which employs 2,320 workers at the Norfolk plant, denied it took the complaints lightly.
"We find these charges disturbing and did so when they first surfaced," said Della DiPietro, a Ford spokeswoman. "Rather than ignoring them, we took numerous and appropriate steps to attempt to identify any individuals who may have engaged in these inappropriate acts."
DiPietro said Ford officials never found the responsible person or people. The women no longer work at the company.
The EEOC said the items began being left at Gutierrez' workstation in March 1996, at Hampton's workstation in December 1996, and at Simpson's workstation in August 1997.
No specific dollar figure is given in the lawsuit.
