Jan. 21, 2019—A lawyer who recently won a $16.8-million jury verdict against Ford on behalf of a former company engineer on Friday filed another employment discrimination claim against the OEM, this time for sexual harassment, reported the Detroit Free Press.
Carol Laughbaum of Bloomfield Hills filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on behalf of DeAnna Johnson, 54, who started at the Ford Dearborn Truck Plant as a production supervisor in June 2018 after a career working for automotive suppliers, according to the report.
"From the outset," the lawsuit said, Johnson, who is black, was subjected to "unwanted comments and conduct of a sexual nature, and unwanted comments of both a sexual and racial nature."
According to the Detroit Free Press, Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker responded to the lawsuit with this statement:
“Ford does not tolerate sexual harassment or discrimination. We take those claims very seriously and investigate them thoroughly. While we have not received this lawsuit, we are aware of the allegations. The plaintiff filed a Human Resources complaint in November 2018. We launched an investigation, immediately suspended the employee that was the subject of the complaint, then fired him in December. Ford also interviewed every supervisor who the plaintiff claims had knowledge of her allegations prior to her Human Resources complaint and found that the only supervisor to whom she complained immediately referred her complaint to Human Resources.”
