USIA Sex Bias Ruling Upheld

THE DAILY FED

USIA Sex Bias Ruling Upheld

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a ruling that the U.S. Information Agency had discriminated against women, the Associated Press reported.

The lawsuit against the government, originally filed 20 years ago, accused the USIA of bias against women who applied for professional jobs, including writing and technical positions. A federal judge in 1984 allowed 1,100 women to seek monetary damages from the agency. So far 12 women have been awarded back pay averaging $518,000. The government is appealing the awards.

Yesterday the justices rejected the government's position that the lawsuit should not have been certified as a class action.

Government lawyers had contended that statistics didn't show that a specific discriminatory practice had affected all the women.

In previous lower court rulings, USIA was ordered to reevaluate thousands of applications women had submitted for overseas jobs and to hire 39 women whose applications had been rejected.