Black lesbian wins UPS lawsuit
By
Leslie Feinberg
Published Mar 30, 2005 10:54 AM
“According to my former supervisor, I
wasn’t ‘feminine’ enough,” Kathy Hoskins recalls.
Hoskins, an African American out lesbian, sued her former employer, United
Parcel Service, for what she described as sev ere, widespread and ongoing
work-place harassment that led to wrongful firing.
After looking at the
facts in her case, a San Francisco Superior Court jury agreed.
The panel
questionnaire concluded “that Hoskins was subjected to ‘unwanted
harassing conduct’ that was severe enough to create a hostile work
environment.” The jury also found that UPS bosses did not take action to
stop the abuse and that she was unjustly terminated. (PlanetOut
Network)
As a result, the week of March 11 the panel awarded Hoskins
$13,670 in economic damages, $50,000 compensation for emotional distress, and
ordered the company to pay her attorney’s fees and costs.
Hoskins
was a package car driver at the San Bruno, Calif., facility of the world’s
biggest package delivery company for 14 years—from September 1988 to
February 2003. Court records reveal that when she was hired there were only
three other women in the work force of 200 drivers, and only one other African
American woman.
The supervisor who reportedly haras sed her about her
gender expression did not hire a single woman during his five years in
management at San Bruno. During his whole 22-year career in UPS management he
only promoted one woman.
Hoskins and her lawyer, Waukeen Q. McCoy,
announced plans to appeal an earlier decision by another court. That ruling had
barred Hoskins from suing UPS for sex discrimination under the California Fair
Employment and Housing Act.
“The outcome of this case,”
declared McCoy, “sends a clear message to UPS and the rest of corporate
America that harassment based on gender stereotypes will not be tolerated.
Discrimination in the work place must stop, and stop now. We will continue to
fight this case against UPS at the appellate level.”
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