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Change Your Life! |
Judge approves sex discrimination lawsuit against five CBS stations |
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April 5, 2000
MINNEAPOLIS, APR 4 (AP) - A U.S. federal judge approved class-action status for a sex discrimination lawsuit on behalf of female technicians at five CBS television stations.
The 1996 lawsuit accuses CBS of discriminating against its female technical employees at stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis and Green Bay, Wisconsin.
CBS spokesman Michael Silver said the network was studying the judge's decision.
According to court documents filed Monday, plaintiff Rebecca Beckman of WCCO-TV in Minneapolis testified she had been denied three promotions that went to men.
She said she was told she was passed over for one job because she did not have a certain type of training, which she said she had requested repeatedly.
Plaintiff Beth Senn, also of WCCO-TV, said her supervisor denied her additional training because he said she "wasn't smart enough." Senn said that when she complained about her supervisor's sexually vulgar and derogatory comments, she was told, "Boys will be boys."
Other prospective members of the class-action lawsuit testified about supervisors' comments including, "a woman couldn't handle the story," "I had one of you girls in this position before, and it didn't work out" and "It's a man's world and there is nothing we can do about it."
Certified to join the lawsuit are women who worked as technicians at WCCO-TV or in the engineering and operation department at WCBS-TV in New York, KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, WBBM-TV in Chicago and WFRV-TV in Green Bay starting in Oct. 1993.
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