USPS settles suit claiming harassment Old Town woman to get undisclosed sum

BANGOR – A former postal worker last week settled her discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service for an undisclosed amount.

A jury trial in the case had been scheduled to begin today in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

Linda L. Randall of Old Town filed the lawsuit nearly two years ago. Randall claimed that while she worked at the Eastern Maine Processing and Distribution Facility in Hampden, male co-workers sexually harassed her.

Attorneys for both sides last week declined to discuss details of the settlement.

In her complaint, filed on Aug. 14, 2003, Randall alleged that because her supervisors failed to take action, she became ill, lost work time and, eventually, had to quit her job due to the harassment.

She sought compensatory and punitive damages, back pay, lost benefits, attorneys’ fees and other relief from the federal court.

The USPS in its trial brief argued that “credible evidence” was insufficient for Randall to prove her claims.

“In addition, the Postal Service exercises reasonable care to prevent and promptly correct sexually harassing behavior and Ms. Randall unreasonably failed to take advantage of the preventive or corrective opportunities provided,” according to the trial brief prepared by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Collins of Portland.

Randall began working at the Hampden plant in 1996, both sides agreed. A report that she had been subjected to inappropriate comments from another worker was investigated in 2000. Randall was transferred to a position at Greenbush during the investigation.

The Postal Service claimed it was a temporary reassignment, but in her trial brief, Randall alleged that she had been told “by the plant manger that she would never have to return to Hampden again.”

The male worker disciplined in the incident “has never returned to work at the Hampden facility,” according to court documents filed by attorneys for USPS.

The trial, had it proceeded, would have focused on the time after Randall returned to Hampden from the 10-month assignment in Greenbush.

“From the minute she walked in the door … [she] was subjected to sexual harassment and retaliation by male co-workers who had been friends of [the worker involved in the previous incident],” wrote Randall’s attorney A.J. Greif of Bangor. “Her bra was snapped, the male co-workers interfered with her use of the telephone, called her a bitch, stole her belongings, kicked her frequently, and tackled her and pushed her in a snow bank and then bragged that they had ‘just cooled Linda’s ass off.'”

Attorneys for the Postal Service wrote in their trial brief that the plant manager never received reports that Randall believed she was being retaliated against or harassed.

Randall was not pleased to be assigned to the graveyard shift after working days in Greenbush, according to court documents filed by the USPS.