ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 26, 1997 TAG: 9702260047
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
About 250 former and current employees of DuPont's nylon plant in Henry County have settled an age-discrimination case against the company.
The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Delaware, where DuPont is based, is "resolved," said David Flowers, a plaintiff's lawyer, on Tuesday. He declined to give details of the private settlement.
Court records show a judge closed the case Jan. 31 after the worker group and the company agreed to its dismissal. Those records do not give the terms of the settlement or indicate how many workers have returned to the plant. A source said a small number are back at DuPont.
It is not uncommon in corporate jurisprudence for a company to agree to pay damages to another company or workers on the condition that the terms remain private and the lawsuit is closed without any finding of wrongdoing. It is not certain that happened in this case, however.
The company, in a statement, said "DuPont is pleased to have this matter resolved and will have no further comment."
In May 1995, 170 of the plant's former employees charged that they were victims of an illegal company scheme to jettison high-paid workers, who also tended to be older. After the case was filed, about 80 additional former workers joined the suit.
According to a news release sent out at the time by the United Mine Workers of America Local 218 - a union of some Henry County DuPont employees - and plaintiffs' lawyers, the suit made these additional claims:
The company wanted to eliminate 600 jobs. It didn't want forced layoffs, however, because union seniority rules protected the highest-paid workers; the company would have had to dismiss the 600 most junior workers.
Instead, the company announced a cross-training program, under which workers were told that, at a future date, they would be required to run a spinning machine, regardless of their then-current job assignment. The machine requires good eyesight and heavy lifting.
DuPont told more senior workers that if they could not run the machine, they would be fired. Those who agreed to leave voluntarily were promised extra severance pay and lifetime medical coverage. Firing would have meant no severance or medical insurance. More than 600 agreed to be laid off. The feared cross-training plan was never implemented as planned.
The 1995 release also said that many who agreed to leave were in their mid 40s and, by leaving before normal retirement age, they lost a portion of their pension benefits, which were based on years of service to the company. One goal of the lawsuit was to get compensation for any workers who lost pension benefits or wages unfairly, a plaintiffs' lawyer said.
DuPont last fall announced it would close the Henry County factory in mid-1998 and lay off the remaining 550 workers.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB