Goodyear to Pay Millions in Discrimination Lawsuit

Goodyear Tire & Rubber has been ordered to pay a woman in the US nearly $4.4 million after a jury in Seattle found the company demoted her subsequent to her complaint of being the victim of discrimination due to her sexual orientation. The lawsuit was filed by Melissa Sheffield, 47, who had been employed in a Goodyear owned retail store in Seattle for a decade before the alleged problems began in 2003.

According to the lawsuit, in 2003 a new district manager, Randy Reich, and service manager, David Johnson, were assigned to the store in which Sheffield worked. Johnson, the suit claims, “immediately let it be known…that he knew Sheffield was gay and did not like gays.” Sheffield is reported to have, upon learning that Johnson carried a gun to work, confronted him about it, whereupon – according to Ms Sheffield’s lawsuit – he threatened to pull it out and to urinate upon her. When Sheffield brought this complaint to Reich she claims he took no action, therefore she went over his head and reported the incident to human resources at Goodyear’s corporate office.

The company’s investigation corroborated the complaint and Johnson was fired as a result. But Sheffield was demoted to assistant store manager and went from making $55,000 a year to $13 an hour, according to the lawsuit. However due to a back injury sustained at work before her complaint, Sheffield was unable work full time in her new position, which required heavy lifting, and she was eventually fired, the lawsuit claims. In court documents Goodyear claimed that Sheffield’s demotion in fact stemmed from her own misconduct, including irregularities in billing and “inappropriate kissing” of her partner in the store.

After two days of deliberation the jury returned with the decision that Goodyear and Reich had penalised her for lodging a formal complaint and did not accommodate her disabilities. Sheffield was awarded $318,000 in lost past wages, more than $40,000 in lost and future benefits, and $4 million in emotional distress. The company has not as yet released any official comment regarding the ruling.