Boeing settles women discrimination suit

Boeing Co and employees claiming the company discriminated against women said on Friday they had reached a financial settlement and were working out other issues, delaying the start of a class-action lawsuit.
The two sides will spend up to 45 days working on other parts of the case, in which Boeing was accused of allowing sexual harassment and other unfair treatment and had been slated to go to trial in federal court in Seattle on Monday.
"For the next 45 days, the parties will attempt to agree on all other issues. If those efforts are successful, an overall agreement will be presented to the Court for its consideration and approval," the two sides said in a joint statement.
"If approved, the terms of the agreement will be announced at that time. If the agreement is not approved, trial will be scheduled on the unresolved issues," the statement continued, adding that neither side would comment further for now.
The case involves 28,000 women seeking back pay and punitive damages, claiming Boeing paid them less than their male counterparts and tolerated sexual intimidation and improper advances.
Chicago-based Boeing, the No. 2 Pentagon contractor and the world's No. 2 commercial jet maker, faces a second discrimination lawsuit slated for trial beginning on Monday on behalf of 1,850 Seattle-area engineers and technical workers.
Those workers, with ties to seven countries - Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines - claim the company mistreated them on the basis of race or national origin.
Boeing previously paid $14.5 million to correct pay inequality for women, but the female plaintiffs claimed a company study and government investigations showed a broader problem. Potential damages in that case had been estimated at as much as hundreds of millions of dollars by some observers.
Boeing settled a racial discrimination suit filed by black employees in 1999 for $15 million.
Women filed additional lawsuits in several locations, though cases in Southern California, St. Louis and Wichita, Kansas, were dismissed. Another case in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been granted class status but has not yet gone to trial.