Sexual Harassment Lawyer Blawg
BAE Norfolk Shipyard entered into a Consent Decree in 2016 to resolve a class action. It was supposed to end sexual harassment and discrimination against women. For a while, it helped. Women were promoted, men were fired or disciplined for sexual harassment and women were compensated for being held back.
But by 2018 when the Decree expired BAE went back to business as usual: women denied promotions or pressured for sex, and sexual harassment was rampant, again. This time the women filed with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), which investigates discrimination at federal contractors like BAE. OFCCP had the power to disbar BAE from further contracts as a penalty, which they hoped would provide a permanent fix. And after three years of investigation it looked like it would.
The New York Times reported that OFCCP investigators had found that:
male managers at a Norfolk, Va., Navy shipyard had demanded oral sex and other sexual contact from female employees in exchange for promotions and overtime pay, and that Black women had been paid less and promoted less frequently than men, according to three people with knowledge of the findings.
[OFCCP] was zeroing in on a resolution to propose to the company, BAE Systems: to make seven-figure payouts to workers and to adopt reforms — or risk losing its roughly $8 billion in annual federal contracts.
But on January 21, 2025 Trump issued an Order that OFCCP “cease and desist” enforcement. On the verge of a fix, Trump pulled the rug out from under the women of BAE.
Employment Law Firm PC, which along with ERA brought the original class action, is bringing another suit to end once and for all discrimination, and sexual harassment at BAE, and obtain compensation for victims.
We are asking for your help.
If you spoke to an OFCCP investigator, or filled out a questionnaire, we need to speak to you. We will collect the same proof that OFCCP did, and use it to get permanent relief. The interview is strictly confidential. No one at BAE will know. It will take just ten minutes.
Even if you didn’t speak to OFCCP, if you know of discrimination or harassment, call this number and help put an end to sex discrimination and harassment at BAE ONCE AND FOR ALL: 888-369-1119
If you are a supervisor at BAE or work with BAE’s attorneys please do not call.