Woman awarded $125,000 by jury
CARTHAGE — A federal court jury has awarded a U.S. Postal Service employee about $125,000 in back pay after finding that her full-time position was eliminated because of complaints that she was being discriminated against for being a woman.
Roberta K. Faul had sued the service in U.S. District Court in October 2006, claiming that men working in the Carthage post office were given preferential treatment over women and that her full-time position was eliminated when she filed complaints about the disparate treatment.
After a five-day trial last week in Binghamton, an eight-person jury deliberated for two hours before deciding that the elimination of Ms. Faul's full-time job was retaliation for the complaints. In addition to more than 61/2 years of back pay, plus interest, the jury awarded her $25,000 in compensatory damages for the emotional stress brought about by losing her full-time position as window clerk.
The Postal Service also must reinstate her to her original position or pay her the equivalent of what she would be making as a full-time employee. Since March 2004, she has been working in what the service refers to as "part-time flexible capacity."
"The Postal Service just has to do a better job overseeing their supervisors, and they really have to instill in their supervisors an ability to be fair and equitable to their employees, and quit riding them like they're jockeys," said Ms. Faul's attorney, Marc E. Weinstein, Philadelphia, Pa.
Ms. Faul, who has worked for the Postal Service since 1986, filed a federal Equal Employment Opportunity complaint in 2002 alleging that women in the Carthage post office were treated less favorably than men.
After the complaint was filed, it was claimed that Postmaster Jeffrey A. Sands, who later became postmaster in Watertown and was named in March as the service's manager of operations for the northern tier of the Albany District, offered to have Ms. Faul transferred to a supervisory position in another post office, but she declined.
In 2003, the Postal Service conducted an audit of the Carthage facility and determined that Ms. Faul's position was not necessary and should be eliminated. Ms. Faul contended that Mr. Sands had requested the audit as a prelude to eliminating her position, a charge the Postal Service disputed in court documents.
Given a different job with her work hours reduced, Ms. Faul filed a second Equal Employment Complaint, in which she claimed it was a pattern of behavior on Mr. Sands's part to further reduce her hours and thus reduce her pay.
In September 2004, she was suspended for seven days for failing to follow instructions and delaying mail. While the Binghamton jury found the suspension was "materially adverse" to Ms. Faul, it also determined the act was not retaliation for filing the discrimination complaints.
At one point in 2008, a District Court judge dismissed Ms. Faul's complaint, ruling in part that the evidence she had presented as proof of retaliation was insufficient for a jury to conclude that it occurred. The U.S. Court of Appeals disagreed, stating there were questions of retaliation that could be decided only by a jury. It overturned the lower court's dismissal and ordered last week's trial.
The jury was asked to consider if the Postal Service had retaliated against Ms. Faul by eliminating her position in 2004 and concluded that it had. In addition to back pay and compensatory damages, the service must pay for her attorney fees, as well as give her back her full-time job or its equivalent.
