VOA Losing Big Bias Suit

THE DAILY FED

VOA Losing Big Bias Suit

An employment-discrimination case against the Voice of America brought by 1,100 women who were turned down for jobs at the agency in the past 20 years appears to be entering its final phase. The case could prove to be the most costly lawsuit ever filed against the U.S. government.

A court-appointed special master, Stephen A. Saltzburg, has already awarded eight women a total of $4.7 million in damages. (The claims of two other women were rejected.) Total awards in the suit could reach as high as $500 million, The Washington Post reported today.

In one case, Lynn Goldman Bartlett was awarded $562,481 as a result of being turned down for a job at the agency. In 1980, both Bartlett and her husband, who co-owned a recording studio in New York, sent applications for jobs with the VOA to the agency in the same envelope. He was offered a position, but she was told that her application had not been received. She reapplied in 1982 and was told she was not qualified. When she protested, she was told she needed to fill out a form that she found out later did not exist.

Saltzburg awarded Bartlett $562,481 in damages. "There is only one explanation for why Lynn Goldman Bartlett was not hired at the same time as her husband," he wrote. "Women and men were treated differently. There were openings for 'warm bodies' as long as those bodies were male."

Another woman, Dilara Hashem, was refused full-time employment and eventually laid off from her part-time broadcasting job, while a man who failed his voice test twice was hired. Saltzburg found that Hashem was better qualified for the position, having already worked as a national news broadcaster in East Pakistan and London.

VOA has declined public comment on the suit and is currently considering an appeal to the Supreme Court.