The State - News from Sept. 16, 1988

The General Services Administration has routinely discriminated and discouraged women from obtaining jobs as federal guards, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission hearing officer has ruled in San Francisco. The decision was a victory for Charlott Grimes, a secretary who has been trying to get a Federal Protective Service job for five years. If ultimately upheld it could affect women who have been discouraged or rejected from GSA guard jobs in California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii since 1983, according to Grimes’ attorney, Brad Seligman. Federal Protective Service officers act as guards and a police force for GSA-run federal buildings around the country. The GSA has 60 days to either accept the decision or appeal it to the EEOC appeals panel in Washington. A spokesperson for GSA could not be reached for comment. Although the service hired 45 FPS officers between 1983 and 1986, not one was a woman, Seligman said.