Former U.S. Labor Secretary Lynn Martin has been subpoenaed to answer questions under oath next week about her role in the government’s sexual-harassment lawsuit against Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America, attorneys in the case said Thursday.
The Illinois Republican, hired by the Japanese automaker last year to study its workplace policies and procedures, will be questioned at the Chicago offices of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The deposition will address “what she learned about sexual harassment at Mitsubishi and what she recommended to make that better,” said Jean Kamp, EEOC supervisory trial attorney.
Martin and a task force spent nine months reviewing policies and procedures at Mitsubishi’s sprawling assembly plant in Normal, Ill.
More Top Picks Hyperlexia Vs Early Reading When To Be Concerned
On Feb. 12, she unveiled recommendations for restructuring the company’s workplace, such as revamping its human resources department and providing top-management oversight of sexual-harassment complaints.
But Martin never acknowledged whether sexual harassment had occurred at the plant. A spokesman for Martin has said that Martin and her team did not set out to investigate claims, but rather to propose policies and procedures.
Wary of charges that it would be interfering with the EEOC investigation, Martin’s team deliberately refused to hear workers who wanted to make specific charges of abuse, the spokesman has said.
But EEOC attorneys want to know more. “How can you make sure it never happens again if you don’t investigate what happens?” asked John Hendrickson, EEOC regional attorney.
Martin was traveling in Europe Thursday, and couldn’t be reached for comment.
EEOC attorneys said Martin agreed to the deposition after being subpoenaed. “She was very cooperative,” Kamp added. The interview is scheduled from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and continue Tuesday morning, Kamp said.
Meantime, a federal judge has urged attorneys in the case to speed up their schedule of depositions, and Mitsubishi published “an open letter to our community” in a Bloomington newspaper Thursday to counter a renewed focus on the government’s case.
Though the EEOC’s suit on behalf of 300 female Mitsubishi employees dates to April 9, 1996, lurid details of sex parties, abusive behavior and management complicity emerged from depositions cited in new documents the agency filed Monday in federal district court in Peoria.
The EEOC filing responded to a motion by Mitsubishi for a partial summary judgment. The agency argued that sexual harassment had been a pervasive problem for at least six years prior to the filing of the suit.
During a hearing Thursday, U.S. District Judge Joe Billy McDade told the EEOC to pick up the pace of its investigation. The EEOC had wanted one attorney to take depositions four days a week.
“That’s not going to work,” McDade said.
Both the EEOC and Mitsubishi legal teams should be open to interviewing more than one witness at a time to speed up the case, the judge said. “Anytime anyone brings a lawsuit, including the government, they have a commitment to diligently pursue that lawsuit,” McDade said.
Mitsubishi’s full-page advertisement in The Pantagraph, which serves the Bloomington-Normal area, highlights Martin’s report and recommendations.
Mitsubishi hired Martin one month after the EEOC suit was filed.
“From our perspective, the news this week is about the past, and that is going to be resolved,” said Gael O’Brien, director of corporate and community communications at Mitsubishi, explaining the rationale for the advertisement.
The open letter acknowledges the company “has received a great deal of media attention in the past 17 months surrounding allegations of sexual harassment alleged to have occurred prior to 1996.”
The letter only addresses the allegations by saying that “judgments about the past facts by necessity belong to the legal process.
“As a member of the community and the second-largest employer in the county,” the letter says, “MMMA has a responsibility that we want to honor to keep you informed about our priorities, commitments and how we intend to keep our workplace free of harassment or discrimination of any kind.”
So far, the letter says, Mitsubishi has asked for employee contributions to help it develop a mission statement. It also has put in place a department to investigate and resolve complaints related to harassment or discrimination. It is headed by Gloria-Jeanne Davis, formerly assistant to the president and affirmative-action officer at Illinois State University in Normal.
The company also says it developed a sexual-harassment prevention training program for all employees and a supplier diversity program.
The letter is signed by Michio Yamashita, chairman and senior chief executive officer, and Takahisa Komoto, president and chief executive officer.