Ingalls, NSC settle sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuits

Huntington Ingalls and a staffing agency have agreed to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit for $350,000.

A complaint was filed by the EEOC on behalf of female employees for NSC Technologies, which contracted with Ingalls to provide cleaning services.

The females said an Ingalls male ship superintendent made sexual comments, engaged in lewd acts, and threatened to terminate them if they did not give into to his sexual advances.

The lawsuit says he also sexually assaulted two NSC employees.

When a harassment complaint was filed, one employee was allegedly fired, and another quit for fear she would be assaulted.

The lawsuit says the ship supervisor threatened to kill a third employee after she reported his assaults.

NSC and Ingalls will pay $350,000 to at least three victims and develop or revise policies to prevent and correct sexual harassment.

Training for employees and managers is also required.

Ingalls Shipbuilding spokesperson Kimberly Aguillard said in a statement to WXXV that Ingalls has strong polices in place prohibiting harassment and retaliation, including how allegations of harassment and retaliation should be reported and handled.

“These policies are widely communicated to the workforce and training is conducted routinely to ensure the workforce understands the policies,” Aguillard said in the statement.

“In April 2018, two women working for an Ingalls subcontractor claimed that an Ingalls employee had behaved inappropriately.  As soon as the first woman reported the alleged conduct, Ingalls investigated the concerns.  Though the allegations of sexual harassment were not substantiated, Ingalls terminated the employee for violating other policies.  To the extent any harassment occurred, Ingalls’ actions prevented any further workplace interaction.  One of the women chose not to return to work for the subcontractor at Ingalls. The other continued working at lngalls for the subcontractor until the contract ended.  Ingalls found no evidence of many of the specific claims of sexual acts alleged in the EEOC’s complaint, but it nevertheless responded appropriately by stopping any potential unlawful conduct.

“Ingalls is committed to creating and sustaining a safe workplace for our employees, contractors and visitors and will continue to implement practices and strictly enforce existing policies to eliminate harassment at its facilities.”