Md. Company To Settle Suit That Claims Gender & Race Discrimination
GREENBELT, Md. (AP) -- A Montgomery County business said Tuesday that it's settling a lawsuit alleging it has discriminated against black and female job applicants.
Rockville-based ACM Services, an environmental remediation contractor, has reached a deal with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to settle the lawsuit, the company's attorney, Jeff Schwaber said.
He said the settlement should be finalized soon. He declined to disclose the terms.
The lawsuit against ACM Services was filed Monday in federal court in Maryland. It alleged that since at least January 2005, ACM avoided hiring black applicants for field laborer positions, and refused to hire women for such jobs, as well.
The commission also accused the company's management of subjecting two employees, Hispanic women, to sexual and racial harassment and firing them for opposing the harassment. The harassment included asking one of the women for sex, making derogatory comments about Hispanic women and displaying graphic sexual images of women, the commission said.
Schwaber said that ACM denies all allegations of wrongdoing.
"(ACM) employs a qualified and diverse workforce and does not tolerate discrimination of any kind," he said.
Schwaber said the company reached "the difficult decision" to settle the lawsuit to avoid the costs and time associated with protracted litigation and to move on.
He attributed the allegations by the two women who were fired to disgruntled employees, and said that the company employs a largely minority workforce.
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