990822 Same Sex Harassment Suit SettledAugust 14, 1999Long Prairie, MN - A meat packing company and the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission have agreed to a $1.9 million settlement in the first male-on-male sex harassment lawsuit to receive class-action status. Long Prairie Packing Co. Inc. settled the lawsuit filed on behalf of workers who alleged they were subject to repeated verbal and physical harassment by co- workers. Long Prairie is 104 miles northwest of Minneapolis. The settlement comes more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex harassment may violate federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in employment. Few details beyond the settlement's total were disclosed, and the company admitted no wrongdoing in Wednesday's consent decree. “Very few companies have entered into settlements that are so emphatic,” said Lloyd Zimmerman, senior trial attorney for the EEOC in Minneapolis. “We appreciate that they're settling with us without putting us through three or four years of expensive litigation about matters that are private and painful.” The $1.9 million settlement will be distributed to all eligible claimants. Men who worked at the company between Jan. 1, 1996, and June 22, 1999, and were subject to harassment, may send a confidential letter to the EEOC, which will assess the claims. Long Prairie Packing currently employs 235 people -- 85% of whom are male. The number of men eligible to file claims was not immediately available. Separately, the company said it also has settled civil lawsuits filed by three former workers, who alleged various incidents of sexually explicit and violent acts. One male worker said in court documents that he was jumped by groups of men who held him down, sometimes in a bin of raw meat or a trough of blood. The worker said the sometimes daily occurrences involved simulated sex acts on him. He said at least one supervisor took part and another threatened to fire him when he complained. Terms of those settlements were not released and the former workers and their attorneys declined to comment. Long Prairie Packing would not say whether any of the allegedly offending workers or supervisors were fired or disciplined. As part of the EEOC settlement, the company must establish a “zero tolerance” policy for sexual or disability-based harassment and institute mandatory sexual harassment training for all plant employees, supervisors, managers and new employees. “We are fully committed to providing our employees a workplace that is free of discrimination and harassment,” said Chief Executive Officer Tom Rosen in a prepared statement. “We are pleased that we were able to resolve the matter without resorting to litigation.”
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