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Boeing to settle discrimination lawsuit

The Boeing Co has agreed to pay US$72.5 million to thousands of women to settle a class-action sex-discrimination lawsuit, according to a local media report on Saturday.

The payout, revealed in documents filed Thursday in US District Court in Seattle, is the maximum allowed under a settlement agreement that won preliminary approval from a federal judge last year, the Seattle Times reported.

As part of the deal, Boeing admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to change its hiring, pay, promotion practices and how it investigates employee complaints.

"We've moved ahead on numerous fronts in making improvements to our work environment," John Dern, a spokesman at Boeing's corporate headquarters in Chicago, told the Seattle Times.

If the plaintiffs' motion for speedy payment is granted, checks could be in the mail to some 17,960 current and former female Boeing employees by Christmas.

Otherwise, the aerospace titan has until Jan. 14 to pay a court administrator, who will then issue checks to class members according to seniority and position.

The exact amounts to be disbursed are under seal, but range from US$500 to US$26,000, Helgren said. The average pre-tax payout is US$3,000 per employee.

About US$15 million will be deducted from the total settlement to cover attorneys' fees and other legal costs.

In all, more than 20,000 current and former female employees out of a potential pool of 29,000 said Boeing discriminated against them at Seattle-area plants between 1997 and 2000.

Of those claims, nearly 2,400 were thrown out for filing irregularities, including failure to meet a May 3 deadline.

"It's revealing that over 60 percent of female employees filed claims -- in most class-action suits a 30 percent response rate is typical," said Mike Helgren, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs.

The lawsuit, filed in 2000, alleged a pattern of discrimination at Boeing.
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