Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Agrees to $80K Sexual Harassment Settlement
The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission has campaigned via lawsuits against racism and sexual harassment in construction, but few cases make it to the trial stage.
Original photo by Getty Images/strickke, photo illustration by Scott Hilling/ENR
Balfour Beatty Infrastructure will pay $80,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit against it, which involves a female truck driver in Craven County, N.C., who claimed she was subject to lewd comments and acts during her work for the company and said that when she complained to a supervisor the contractor responded by transferring her to an undesirable work location.
The allegations involved crude and intentional comments and actions, such as a coworker asking the victim to "talk dirty" and asking her to send him pictures of her breasts. The coworker also sent her sexually explicit texts. After her complaint, the driver's coworkers struck back with profanity-laced denunciations, including a declaration that construction is "a man's world."
The Balfour Beatty settlement with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, announced by the EEOC in Raleigh, N.C., was the third by a construction employer in September. Previous settlements involved contractors J.A Croson and Asphalt Paving Systems.
In a statement to McClatchy News on Sept. 9, Mark Konchar, Balfour Beatty division president for U.S. Civils and Rail, said, “We are committed to providing a workplace where everyone feels respected and valued” and “we expect all our people to be respectful and inclusive and to hold each other to account.”
In addition to $80,000 in damages owed to the affected employee, Balfour Beatty Infrastructure must revise its anti-discrimination and harassment policy, train all staff employees on sex harassment and retaliation issues and "refrain from discriminating against employees because of their sex."
In 2018, ENR published a survey it conducted, finding that two out of three industry respondents reported an incident of gender bias or sex harassment.
Looking for quick answers on construction and engineering topics?
Try Ask ENR, our new smart AI search tool.
Ask ENR →
