THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608110079
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: 84 lines
In the past 11 years, Theresa Gay has battled blazes for the Navy and successfully taken on Coast Guard civilian firefighters in a sex discrimination lawsuit.
Now the 35-year-old Chapanoke resident is again fighting to reclaim her job as the only female firefighter at the Elizabeth City Coast Guard base.
Later this month Gay and some of the same co-workers who were found to have discriminated against her five years ago will appear before a three-member panel in Norfolk.
The Merit System Protection Board will determine if Gay was wrongly fired in May after failing to perform up to certain standards during a six-month performance-improvement plan that ended in March.
The dismissal took effect soon after Gay had given birth to her first child.
Gay believes her pregnancy prevented her from doing many of her normal firefighting tasks during the review period and was used against her.
``I'm not sure how much of this is due to things that are related to her pregnancy,'' said Gay's attorney, Jeff Euchler of Virginia Beach. ``Certainly, it did not help matters.''
Euchler is certain that his client was singled out because of her sex.
``It's absolutely because she's a female - no question about that,'' he said. ``That has always been the problem.
``They never wanted a woman in that job. They've never had another woman in that job.''
Firefighters at the Elizabeth City base work 24-hour shifts and undergo regular training. Gay said that during her tenure the unit answered an average of 180 calls a year.
Before her pregnancy, Gay said she regularly worked out to stay in shape, mainly through weight training and walking. She is 5-foot-1 and now weighs about 155 pounds.
Gay believes her pregnancy was key in her dismissal, which took effect May 29. Her son, Andrew, was born May 14.
Gay conceived in September 1995, a month after a miscarriage, and transferred to a desk job within the department to enhance her chances of bringing the baby to full term.
Civilian firefighters operate under the Support Center at the Elizabeth City complex. Both the commanding officer and executive officer were on vacation this week and were unavailable for comment.
About the time Gay learned she was having a baby, she also was put on a Performance Improvement Plan.
Such programs outline an employers' expectations and provide time for an employee to improve in deficient areas before they may be fired for misconduct or poor performance, said Lt. Cmdr. Jeffrey Good, the attorney representing the Coast Guard agency in the Aug. 30 hearing.
Neither Good, nor anyone else involved in the case, would comment on the specifics of Gay's plan because of the pending hearing.
But Gay did say she believes a chain of events that revolved around the performance plan was orchestrated to kick her off the firefighting force.
``It's mainly because I fought back and won the discrimination suit,'' she said earlier this month from her home in Perquimans County, which she shares with her landscaper husband, Michael, and their son.
In 1993, Gay won a sexual discrimination lawsuit after she was overlooked two years earlier for a permanent firefighting position with the U.S. Coast Guard.
Gay, in 1987, had become the first female firefighter to work at the base for a private contractor. She received much of her training in firefighting in the U.S. Navy.
When Gay's employer went bankrupt, the Coast Guard hired its own firefighters for a civilian unit. Gay was the only women out of 40 applicants.
Coast Guard Fire Chief George Willis had ranked Gay 20th in a 1991 evaluation, which meant she had no chance of getting one of 12 positions. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management had rated her second among the pool of applicants.
Gay sued for her job and returned to the Elizabeth City unit in 1993 and has filed about a dozen formal complaints since then. She has won ``a portion'' of those claims and settled others, her attorney said.
Gay said she had hoped the work atmosphere would improve when she returned to work , but it didn't.
``They've made my life miserable since I've been back, and I know if I go back again my life will be even more miserable,'' she said.
Gay does plan to return to the same job. But first she must win her case.
``I feel like I'd be letting a lot of people down and a lot of women down who have fought to gain acceptance,'' she said.
``No matter what they do to me, I'm going to continue firefighting.''
KEYWORDS: SEX DISCRIMINATION by CNB