EEOC files class-action gender bias suit against Depot - Equal Employment Opportunity Commission files suit against Home Depot - Brief Article

Home Channel News, Sept 3, 2001

HOUSTON -- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a class-action lawsuit against Home Depot for allegedly failing to promote qualified women to lucrative positions, and retaliating against them when they complained. The gender discrimination suit centers on a Texas woman who was allegedly denied a promotion, despite "numerous glowing performance evaluations," according to the EEOC.

Patty Nichols, who has worked for the home improvement retailer since 1988, claims she spent at least two years pushing for an assistant manager position, which is the first level of Home Depot management that entitles an employee to stock options.

After Nichols filed a formal complaint with the EEOC in 1998, the lawsuit alleges that Home Depot retaliated against her by lowering her performance evaluations. Ironically, in May nearly three years after the complaint was filed, the company did eventually promote Nichols. She continues to work in that position while the suit is pending.

The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction blocking Home Depot from engaging in employment discrimination, as well as an unspecified amount of back pay that Nichols would have been entitled to if she had been promoted in 1998. Efforts to reach Home Depot for comment were unsuccessful at press time.