Posted on 06/01/2007 11:58:20 AM PDT by Graybeard58
HARTFORD -- A high-ranking lawyer fighting her demotion sued General Electric Co. on Thursday, accusing the industrial conglomerate of gender discrimination in a lawsuit that also seeks to represent about 1,500 female employees.
Lorene F. Schaefer, who said she was placed on paid administrative leave earlier this month from her job as GE Transportation's general counsel, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport.
The lawsuit alleges that GE pays female lawyers and women in entry-level executive jobs less than men. The lawsuit also accuses Fairfield-based GE of failing to promote its female entry-level executives, or executive-band employees, at the same rate it promotes men in the same jobs.
GE spokesman Gary Sheffer said the company strongly denies the accusations.
"Ms. Schaefer's career with GE clearly illustrates the opportunities that the company provides to women, as she was given opportunities to move to progressively larger roles," he said.
Schaefer is asking a judge to certify a class of 1,500 plaintiffs that includes female entry-level executives and all female lawyers, potentially seeking damages of $500 million.
"It's a corporate culture. You know you're in a very male-dominated culture," said Schaefer, who is top legal officer for Erie, Pa.-based GE Transportation.
Schaefer, 43, accused GE in her lawsuit of failing to promote female lawyers from senior professional level to executive, from executive to senior executive, and from senior executive to the officer level at the same rate as it promotes male lawyers.
Schaefer was an executive-band employee since 1997 and a GE employee since 1994. She said she decided to sue in April after learning that she was to be demoted from her job, which paid $380,000 last year including bonuses.
Executives, including chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt, decided she was to be replaced by a "big-time general counsel," she said.
Schaefer said she was placed on paid administrative leave earlier this month when she complained about the impending demotion.
The lawsuit, which seeks an injunction to halt GE's pay and promotion policies and practices, names Immelt and numerous other executives.
The lawsuit says Immelt has taken responsibility for changing the top leadership of GE since he became chief executive in 2001. But female senior professional employees comprise about 20 percent, "a disproportionately small percentage," Schaefer says in her lawsuit.
"Women at GE have remained in this disproportionately underrepresented level for the past five years since CEO Immelt took," the lawsuit says.
Sheffer said the number of female officers at GE has increased from 17 to 27 since 2001. Sixty-two women are senior executive-level employees, an increase from 42 executives six years ago.
"We're pleased with the progress today and we're determined to continue making progress in this area," Sheffer said.
GE Transportation, a part of the corporation's infrastructure unit, posted revenue of nearly $4.2 billion last year. It comprises aircraft engine and locomotive manufacturing and motorized systems for mining trucks and drills, gas turbines for marine and industrial applications.
Let’s see if this story generates as much interest as when Wal-Mart was accused of the same thing.
Any G.E. bashers out there?
Then fire em all. What’s the problem?
Hillary says that women earn less than men for the same work. And she said that the problem is especially bad for African-American women and “Latinas”. Hillary is concerned about discrimination and likes it when women are in charge.
This was posted yesterday and I posted my thoughts about GE and their executive level employees. The gist of my post was the execs there as a general rule are obnoxious, rude, and cuthroating jerks, and of the 100 or so I have dealt with over the years, I wouldn’t give you two hoots in hell for more than five or six of them. Not to say GE is any different than most large companies, but they are a sorry lot as a whole unit. Check out NBC for an example of how not to run a company.
May be they are obnoxious but I find it curious that this woman is alleging widespread discrimination against women in the company but she apparently didn’t care about it until she herself was affected.
Nothing like cutting to the chase to get to the crux of the matter. ROTFL.
You simply do not find a lot of Women perusing advanced business or technical degrees. A considerable number of women also choose to leave the workforce or choose career paths that allow them to spend time at home with their children.
We had a very talented female engineer where I work that was doing an excellent job, and kept being given more authority, and was doing a great job of taking on that authority. Then she got pregnant with twins. She started out planning on coming back to work, but she couldn't put in the hours to do the job she had been doing and take care of the kids. Despite the fact that she likely made more money working here than her husband does, she is staying home with the kids and he is still working.
That is their choice, and very likely a very good choice for their children's sake, but we definitely lost a good employee.
In our society many women who are capable of being great business professionals simply choose other paths for their lives.
Some women do face some level of discrimination in professional fields. However, a lot also get preferential treatment due to political correctness.
A class action suit against a large company like GE is just a get rich quick scheme by a bitter demoted employee who didn't get her way and wants to make the company pay.
Someone who advanced up to being general counsel for a company as large as GE has no business claiming that there is institutional discrimination against promoting women.
She should be fired and should have to pay GE's legal expenses unless she can provide solid proof of widespread discrimination.
She should be fired and should have to pay GE's legal expenses unless she can provide solid proof of widespread discrimination.
The fact that she advanced is far as she did, does not preclude the discrimination she is claiming. If they promote with reluctance or in disproportionately smaller numbers or there is a quantifiable difference in the criteria, it doesn't matter how far up the ladder one person was promoted, the discrimination still exists.
I'm female but not a feminist, because that word has come to represent the worst of the gender. I am not confrontational either. I work in a male dominated field and I've experienced an incredible array of ugliness in the past 18 years. My daughter is following in my footsteps career-wise and fortunately things are better for her.
Give this due consideration please. The woman may simply be embittered, but the odds are she has suffered some fairly humiliating and hurtful times in her career and she may just have suffered one humiliation too many.
everyone in business has suffered a lot of humiliations. It is just a fact of life.
we don’t all end up trying to destroy the company we worked for all those years as a result.
Is this woman trying to destroy GE??? I think not, wouldn't serve her purposes, would it? If GE is doing the right thing, they have little to worry about. If GE has let a culture of "good old boy ism" flourish, it will probably cost them something. I hardly think GE is in need of your tender loving concern here.
I worked for a fortune 100 company that was a very good place for women to work. That was true for most of my tenure there. Late in that tenure I had a supervisor who disliked women openly and made the lives of his female co-workers miserable. It was still a good company, but had that supervisor (who was quite the golden boy for awhile) taken that attitude up the corporate ladder the company might well have lost something valuable. Does it serve a company well to remain ignorant of abuses by its employees or of an ingrained cultural attitude that runs counter to the company's aims?
everyone in business has suffered a lot of humiliations. It is just a fact of life
I try to act in favor of civility. Just because someone is willing to dish out humiliation to a co-worker does not make it right, nor does it benefit the company.
It is very likely true that she has worked with obnoxious co-workers. Just about anyone who has been in the workforce for an extended period of time has.
I have worked with men who did not show women the proper amount of respect. I'm not claiming they aren't out there, nor do I mean to belittle the problems you have faced.
I have also been around people that simply don't treat others well regardless of gender, or who are rude for other reasons other than gender.
However, that is very different than an institutional pattern of discrimination. Those are interpersonal issues in which those particular people need to be dealt with.
I've also seen a number of women who used their gender to demand special treatment. That doesn't mean that women are that way in general. Once again it is a problem with specific people that should be addressed, but if often difficult to deal with even by employers that try and do their best.
If she has really faced discrimination against her personally, then I have no problem with her standing up for herself and holding those people accountable. That is the best way to address discrimination.
However, that's a very different thing from the feminist approach of calling out skewed statistics and claiming an institutional problem and trying to get all women to jump in on the class action lawsuit lottery.
She's trying to take GE for many millions for a long term, wide spread problem, but only after she was personally demoted. It's very harsh claim, and she needs to be able to back it up with sound evidence. If she has the proof, and GE really is unfairly treating all women that they employ, then they deserve to pay a price for doing so.
The problem is, that I personally know women engineers that work for GE that are doing quite well at the company, and I've never heard problems with widespread discrimination there. GE is a huge company, with locations all over the place. Maybe there are problems in some places. Maybe there are problems at some levels I wouldn't hear about. But I'm skeptical about wide-spread problems simply because it doesn't match my own experiences and because class action lawsuits like this are usually get rich quick schemes for lawyers.
I am glad to hear that you seem to be experiencing less of the ugliness than you once did, and I hope your daughter sees even less.
Obviously so.
I think not,
You are clearly in denial.
wouldn't serve her purposes, would it?
Her purpose to gouge the company for $500 million has been clearly stated. That is clearly an attempt to destroy the company.
If GE is doing the right thing, they have little to worry about.
Rubbish.
If GE has let a culture of "good old boy ism" flourish, it will probably cost them something.
A demand for $500 million should hardly be described as 'something'.
She was certainly happy to take the company's money as a highly paid executive for years.
I hardly think GE is in need of your tender loving concern here.
I will direct my concern where I please.
Does it serve a company well to remain ignorant of abuses by its employees or of an ingrained cultural attitude that runs counter to the company's aims?
Does it serve the country to remain ignorant of the abuses of its attorneys? From the lawyer/judge suing for $67 million over a pair of lost pants to this evil minded lady suing for $500 million.
It is simple vengeance and greed.
She should be disbarred.
I try to act in favor of civility.
Good. Please look forward with eager anticipation to the start of your acting performance.
Just because someone is willing to dish out humiliation to a co-worker does not make it right, nor does it benefit the company.
She is certainly trying to dish the humiliation out. What she is doing is certainly not right. And her conduct does not bring credit to her gender nor to the legal profession. Perhaps all the companies in this country need to head out to Dubai.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.