Mitsubishi Settles Private Sexual Harassment Suit

Mitsubishi Motor Corp. has settled a lawsuit with 27 women who had accused the company of condoning sexual harassment in the workplace, attorneys for both sides said Thursday.

Two of the original 29 plaintiffs did not participate in the settlement involving the Japanese auto maker’s Normal, Ill., plant. Mitsubishi promised to donate $100,000 to women’s causes in the Bloomington-Normal area, the two sides said at a news conference in Peoria, Ill.

They would not disclose any other details. However, an attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said it involves substantial cash payments to the women.

The settlement does not affect the EEOC federal suit accusing Mitsubishi of harassment against more than 300 women, EEOC spokesman John Hendrickson said. Even so, he called the agreement “a good sign,� saying, “I think it represents an assumption of responsibility on their part for a lot of the employment practices we have been challenging.�

In May, the two sides entered into mediation to try to resolve the private suit, filed in federal court in Peoria 1 1/2 years ago.

The federal action, filed in April 1996, contends women at the Normal plant were targets or witnesses of sexual harassment. Mitsubishi at first denied wrongdoing and bused more than 2,000 workers to Chicago to demonstrate outside the EEOC office. It later hired a former U.S. labor secretary to study its workplace and make recommendations.