Texaco Settles Gender Bias Case

A federal agency has found that Texaco Inc., which reached a landmark settlement with black employees in 1997, underpaid some women at offices around the country between 1993 and 1996.

The company, without admitting any violations, has agreed to pay $3.1 million to the 186 women, who held managerial and support jobs at its White Plains headquarters and elsewhere, company spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew said Wednesday. The number is 2 percent of Texaco's female employees.

"This was a cooperative agreement," Ms. McAndrew said. "We're very pleased that the agency found no violations."

The agreement is the largest resulting from an audit by the Labor Department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, which monitors affirmative action at companies that do business with the government.

But it is dwarfed by the $176 million settlement the company reached in the racial discrimination case. That case brought notoriety to Texaco because of tape recordings on which company executives belittled black employees and discussed destroying documents sought by the plaintiffs.

The new agreement provides back pay, ranging from $1,500 to $51,000, and salary increases for the women involved. Texaco must expand opportunities for women and analyze its pay scales every year, paying particular attention to salaries in the midlevel pay grades covered by the settlement.

Written by Jim Fitzgerald