ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 25, 1997 TAG: 9703250085
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: BLOOMBERG NEWS
Equal-opportunity officials have filed to join one of three gender-bias lawsuits against the retailer.
Female ex-employees of Home Depot Inc. won the support of U.S. equal-opportunity officials Monday in their sex-discrimination lawsuit against the home-improvement retailer.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said it filed court papers to intervene in a federal sex-discrimination lawsuit against Home Depot in New Orleans. That suit, filed in 1995, is one of three pending against the Atlanta-based retailer accusing it of discriminating against women in hiring and promotions.
``This type of litigation, attacking the glass ceiling, is a priority for the commission under its national enforcement plan,'' said C. Gregory Stewart, the commission's general counsel, in a New York news conference.
Stewart said Home Depot attorneys intend to oppose the proposed intervention.
Home Depot is the largest retailer targeted by the commission in a court action, said James Lee, the commission's regional attorney. If the motion is successful, the commission will help attorneys for the four former Home Depot cashiers in Louisiana with research and other legal procedures.
The Louisiana lawsuit seeks class-action status to include sex-discrimination claims by all female Home Depot employees in the eastern United States, where Home Depot has 310 of its 518 stores and 22,000 female employees.
This month, Home Depot failed at the Supreme Court to block a sex-discrimination lawsuit pending in California. That suit involved about 217,000 women whose claims carry a maximum legal liability of more than $65 billion. The company faces a third sex-discrimination suit in New Jersey.
LENGTH: Short : 44 linesby CNB