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Victory ?
Christine McGill and Burnet Sumner have won a battle they should never have had
to fight. In a case that started in 1990, they complained of a hostile work environment and gender discrimination at UCSF, and among other specific causes of action, sexual
harassment by Robert Surber, a co-worker. The validity of their claims is supported by a finding of gender discrimination at the UCSF Psychiatry Department by the (federal)
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and sanctions against Surber for ethical
violations by a peer review panel of the National Association of Social Workers.
Two pressure filled days of JAMS negotiations resulted in a settlement which
McGill and Sumner considered provisional and quickly rejected. Ignoring this, the
University sued to enforce its provisions which included terminating both women's
employment. And though the University withdrew from the suit against McGill and
Sumner, they continued to pay the attorney's fees for Surber to sue for damages that
included his legal costs in defending against the NASW peer review.
A jury has now decided that the victims do not owe their harasser damages. In a
separate action Judge Cahill ruled in Superior Court that the JAMS settlement was
enforceable. If McGill and Sumner's appeal of this decision is successful they will then be able to go to trial on the real issues of their case, the harassment and discrimination they originally complained of and the University's problematic response to
it. At this point, they expect a fairer hearing from a jury than they got from JAMS.
-wage@wage.org-