PEABODY — A female employee at the Peabody Municipal Light Plant has filed a formal complaint alleging that the municipal utility passed her over for a promotion because of her age and because she is a woman.
Maritza Gilmore, 63, of Peabody has worked as a clerk at the light plant for about nine years. She filed the discrimination complaint last week with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, an independent state agency that investigates and adjudicates discrimination complaints. If the commission finds the plant did discriminate, it could levy a fine and force management to attend anti-discrimination trainings.
"I remember 40 years ago when I got out of high school people told me, 'You won't get paid as much as a man because you've got to remember, men need to support their family,'" Gilmore said yesterday. "I said, 'Oh yeah,' and went along with it. But this is 40 years later, and things have changed. It's an injustice."
Gilmore says the plant hired a younger man with less experience to the position of energy conservation specialist in December 2008, despite Gilmore being the only employee on the plant's civil service list — a system of promotion for public employees — who had applied for the job.
Plant manager Bill Waters, through spokeswoman Judy Meserve, declined to comment yesterday because he was unaware of the complaint.
According to Gilmore, the conservation specialist helps customers conserve energy by visiting their houses and performing energy audits. As clerk, Gilmore records information, keeps track of lineman hours and files purchasing orders, among other things, she said. Gilmore worked for 10 years as an engineer at Verizon and has been a longtime clerk for the Peabody light plant, making her more qualified for the conservation job than the person the plant hired, she said.
The man the plant hired over Gilmore was 13 years younger, "was less qualified than me and had substantially less seniority," Gilmore said in her complaint. "It is my belief that I was not selected for this position due to my age, as well as my gender."
Gilmore said she was passed over for another promotion at the plant in 2007, under similar circumstances. According to city records, Gilmore earned just over $40,000 in 2009, the most recent year for which earnings were immediately available yesterday.
Culture of discrimination?
This is not the first time a female employee has sounded alarms about sexism at the Peabody light plant.
In 2007, Barbara Tracchia filed a lawsuit in Salem Superior Court alleging that the Peabody Municipal Light Plant and its commission have systematically kept women from moving out of office positions into higher-paying technical jobs. The lawsuit was originally a class-action lawsuit, involving several women, but the complaint was later amended to include just Tracchia.
That matter was resolved in January 2010 when an out-of-court settlement was reached just before the trial, according to Rita Morales, the attorney who represented Tracchia in the case. Per the terms of the agreement, neither side would say yesterday how much money, if any, Tracchia received in the settlement. The lawsuit asked for damages of $139,000 per plaintiff for lost salary and emotional distress, according to court documents.
The plant was also the focus of controversy in the early 1980s when two women successfully sued the light plant and its commission on sex discrimination complaints.
Gilmore says that, despite asking repeatedly, she has never been told why she wasn't selected for the job, or why the man who got it is considered better suited for it.
"I ask, 'In what way is he more qualified?' and all they do is chuckle and tell me they can't say," Gilmore said. "Why should I be scoffed at and laughed at?"
Gilmore initially filed a grievance against the plant through her union in December 2008, but after months of waiting, the matter was never resolved. Gilmore's union decided against pursuing her case, she said, because of the high cost of arbitration. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees declined to comment on the matter.
Finally, after many months of getting nowhere with the union or the plant, Gilmore said she decided to advocate for herself.
The matter now goes to the state Commission Against Discrimination, which will conduct an investigation and will reach some opinion on whether discrimination occurred, said Barbara Green, a spokeswoman for the commission. If the commission determines that there is probable cause, it will get the two sides together to mediate a solution. If that doesn't work, the matter goes to a public hearing, "which is similar to a trial," at which point a conclusion will be made and fines levied if the plant is found to be in the wrong, Green said.
"I am very grateful for the job I have now. It is a good job," Gilmore said. "But why should I sit here for 10 years doing a good job and have someone come in and get a promotion ahead of me?"
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