EEOC Suing Staffing Agency on Behalf of Sexually Assaulted Cleaning Workers

Although cleaning industry news has been dominated by the pandemic’s effect on workers and the supply chain, other issues have not gone away. Sexual harassment continues to be an issue, as evidenced by a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

The EEOC is suing a military manufacturer and a contracting company for allegedly ignoring claims of sexual assault on cleaning workers by staff on U.S. Coast Guard ships, The Associated Press reports.

According to the lawsuit, Huntington Ingalls Industries, the largest military shipbuilding company in the nation, and NSC Technologies, a staff contracting company, are both accused of ignoring pleas for help from women on a cleaning crew who claimed that a supervisor on a Coast Guard ship in Mississippi assaulted them and coerced one of them into a sexual relationship by threatening her job. Another woman was fired when she refused to comply with the supervisor’s inappropriate request.

The EEOC lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Alabama and accuses the two companies of violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits sexual harassment in the workplace or retaliation against those who report it. The women in the lawsuit worked for NSC on a Coast Guard ship at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi. They accused a Huntington Ingalls supervisor of assaulting and harassing them over the course of several months.

The lawsuit claims the women’s immediate supervisor at NSC was “well aware” of the harassment and reported the complaints to an NSC branch manager. However, the manager took no action and later said his concern was with keeping the company’s contract with Huntington Ingalls.

The EEOC is asking the U.S. District Court judge to order the companies and their employees to halt sexual harassment and retaliation and begin training programs that will prevent further abuse. The federal agency also asked the court to punish the companies for “malicious and reckless conduct” and award back pay and compensation for the women’s financial losses and emotional suffering.

NSC recently closed its office in Mobile, Alabama. Neither NSC nor Ingalls Shipbuilding has responded to requests for comment from the media.