Anchorage Daily News

Alaska's main public school teachers union will pay $170,000 to settle a federal harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of four female employees.

NEA-Alaska admitted no guilt in the consent decree announced Monday, and it called the settlement "the closing chapter of an old story."

"This suit was the expected fallout of an earlier suit settled in May 2006," said Barbara Angaiak, president of the union.

The EEOC claimed that former NEA-Alaska executive director Thomas Harvey harassed the four employees by yelling at them, and treated men less harshly. According to the lawsuit, Harvey delivered a daily barrage of abusive treatment to female employees. The women described Harvey's face turning bright red and his neck veins bulging as he shook his fists in their faces and yelled and screamed at them.

A current phone listing for Harvey could not be found.

The commission claimed top management officials at NEA-Alaska witnessed or received complaints about Harvey's behavior and took no action to stop it, even promoting Harvey to the director's job during a previous EEOC lawsuit on similar charges.

The first lawsuit also claimed gender-based harassment. The case was settled on behalf of three other women for $750,000 in 2006. Then-NEA-Alaska President Bill Bjork said the union, along with its national parent, the National Education Association, disputed the allegations but decided to settle out of court to avoid more expense.

"The advantage of settling this is to allow NEA-Alaska and NEA to avoid the litigation expense and focus on protecting the interests of public education employees," Bjork said in May 2006. "But the disadvantage is that we never get an opportunity to defend ourselves ..."

EEOC regional attorney William Tamayo said in a statement that it was rare to sue the same employer for the same extreme harassment by the same manager, under the same top management.

Harvey left the union job in August 2006.

According to the settlement, the union will pay $50,000 to Denise J. Poole; $75,000 to Ellen Cruise, including $45,000 for lost wages; and $25,000 each to Kimila Cherry and Lyn Jackson. Union officials agreed to carry out anti-discrimination policies and provide a training seminar to managers and employees.

"We settled the second suit because it was in the best interest of our members to do so and move on," said Angaiak of NEA-Alaska.

The union said EEOC has found that NEA–Alaska’s policies and procedures for addressing discrimination complaints meet EEOC standards.

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