Huntington Ingalls and NSC Technologies Settle EEOC Sexual Harassment and Retaliation Suit for $350,000

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Staffing agency NSC Technologies, LLC and shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Incorporated agreed to pay $350,000 to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.

According to the EEOC’s suit, female employees whom NSC sent to work on a cleaning crew at Huntington Ingalls’s shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi were subjected to a sexually hostile work environment and retaliation for complaining about the sexual harassment. Specifically, a male Ship Superintendent employed by Huntington Ingalls made sexual comments to female employees, engaged in lewd acts in front of them, threatened to terminate them if they did not acquiesce to his sexual advances, and sexually assaulted two female employees.

Two female employees reported this sexual harassment to their immediate and higher-level supervisors at NSC, and to a complaint hotline at Huntington Ingalls. The Ship Superintendent terminated one female employee who refused his advances, prompted another to quit out of fear he would assault her, and threatened to kill a third female employee after she reported his assaults.

Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It prohibits an employer from permitting a hostile work environment based on sex or retaliating against employees who complained about such conduct. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Huntington Ingalls Incorporated; Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.; NSC Technologies, LLC, Case No. 1:22-CV-00002-hso-rhwr, S.D. Miss.) in federal court in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi after its Mobile Local Office com­pleted an investigation and was unable to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its voluntary conciliation process.

Under the thirty-month consent decree settling the suit, NSC and Huntington Ingalls will pay $350,000 to at least three victims and develop or revise policies and procedures to prevent and correct sexual harassment. The companies are also required to conduct training for employees and managers to ensure compliance with these policies and the law. The EEOC will monitor the companies’ compliance for the duration of the decree.

“It is a clear violation of Title VII for a supervisor to condition continued employment in exchange for sexual favors,” said EEOC Birmingham District Director Bradley Anderson. “Employees working on a temporary assignment through a staffing agency have the same protections from sexual harassment under Title VII as other employees.”

Marsha Rucker, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Birmingham district said, “Employers, including staffing agencies, are obligated to protect their employees from a sexually hostile work environment and to protect them from retaliation once they report harassment. The EEOC stands ready to prosecute employers who fail to protect employees as Title VII requires.”

NSC is a nationwide staffing company that provides temporary labor to a wide range of customers, including the shipbuilding and ship repair industry. Huntington Ingalls constructs and repairs large surface ships for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard.

The EEOC’s Birmingham District consists of Alabama, Mississippi (except 17 northern counties) and the Florida Panhandle.

More information about sexual harassment is available at Sexual Harassment | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (eeoc.gov).

The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employ­ment discrimination. More information is available at www.eeoc.gov. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.