New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced a settlement with Consolidated Edison, Inc. (Con Ed), a private utility company providing service in New York City and Westchester, for enabling a pervasive pattern of workplace discrimination and harassment against women employees and employees of color. An Office of the Attorney General (OAG) investigation found that Con Ed failed to address race- and sex-based harassment, maintained a hostile work environment for women, and unfairly disciplined women at higher rates than men, limiting their opportunities for career advancement. As a result of OAG’s investigation, Con Ed must enact sweeping reforms and establish a comprehensive new training curriculum for harassment investigators, create new avenues for employees to propose workplace improvements for women working in field positions, and hire an independent consultant who will oversee settlement implementation and report back to OAG. In addition to the comprehensive programmatic relief, Attorney General James has secured $750,000 in restitution for 17 impacted employees.
“When New Yorkers go to work, they deserve to trust that they will not encounter discrimination, harassment, or hostility,” said Attorney General James. “Con Ed failed to protect its workers, allowing toxic, dangerous, and unlawful behavior to persist for years. The company’s inaction is unacceptable, and today we are ensuring this illegal and discriminatory behavior is never tolerated again. My office will always stand up for workers and hold big companies accountable for failing to protect their employees.”
With more than ten million customers, Con Ed is one of the largest utility companies in the United States and predominantly services New York. The OAG launched an investigation into Con Ed in 2021 after receiving multiple complaints of discrimination and harassment. The investigation, which included interviews with dozens of current and former Con Ed employees, testimony from multiple Con Ed representatives, and review of over 1,400 documents, revealed a broad culture of harassment and discrimination, particularly directed toward women employees in the traditionally male-dominated field workforce.
The OAG determined that Con Ed allowed a hostile work environment for women in these field positions, where they were subjected to verbal harassment, exclusion, and inappropriate comments about their appearance. Team members referred to their women colleagues using derogatory and sexist names, and regularly maligned women workers as lazy, unintelligent, and incompetent. Women were subjected to demeaning comments about their appearances, including the tightness of their pants, the length of their nails, and their weight. Multiple women were even criticized by male colleagues and supervisors for the length and frequency of their bathroom breaks, and several women reported that their male coworkers outright refused to work with them. Men often made exclusionary comments to women employees, including, “women don’t belong in this department,” “you don’t belong here,” and “maybe this job is not for you.” One male supervisor was overheard saying that he “had it good” because he had an “all-male department.” Two women even reported that their supervisors did not allow them to train and prepare for promotional exams, which men were permitted to do.
The investigation also revealed that Con Ed failed to take action to prevent and redress sexual harassment, including when male employees made lewd comments and engaged in inappropriate behavior. Several women were subjected to false rumors, unwanted romantic and sexual advances, inappropriate questioning, and outright harassment. One woman reported a particularly traumatizing incident involving a male coworker to Con Ed, after which the company opened an investigation and offered to change her location but did not offer to change the man’s location or limit the accused from appearing at the woman’s workplace.
Similarly, Con Ed failed to act to resolve issues of racial harassment. Several employees reported a supervisor for engaging in blackface to mock specific workers, making racially offensive jokes, and using a racial slur. Despite complaining to management, they didn’t hear back from the company until they banded together to formally request an investigation, and the supervisor remained employed for an additional two years after the misconduct began.
Although Con Ed does have an anti-discrimination policy on paper, OAG investigators found that its Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) failed to effectively uphold such polices. For example, in every single one of the gender discrimination and harassment complaints that OAG reviewed, if the decision came down to credibility determinations, ODI found the victim lacking in credibility and chose to believe the denials of the accused. As a result, women were uncomfortable reporting discrimination or harassment to ODI. One woman who was subjected to unwanted advances and physical touching by a male coworker did not come forward with her complaint because she knew others had been sexually harassed by the same man, and not only was he not disciplined, he was promoted. Some women even reported being told by supervisors to keep allegations of harassment and discrimination to themselves to avoid causing problems at work or harming their coworker’s career.
The OAG investigation broadly determined that Con Ed disciplined women at disproportionately high rates, particularly for attendance issues, while overlooking similar behavior by male employees. A review of disciplinary records revealed that while women comprised only 17 percent of Con Ed’s unionized workforce between 2019 and 2022, they received 28 percent of the total documented disciplinary actions that Con Ed handed out for lateness and other attendance issues. This resulted in a culture of fear: two female employees reported arriving at work hours early and sleeping in their cars in the parking lot out of fear that they would be disciplined for arriving at work even seconds late, when similar lateness by men was ignored. Other women were held back from advancing based on their disciplinary records, which included minor infractions for which men were not disciplined. One woman was even placed on an unheard-of three-year probation period for missing work due to illness, and another was forced to pay back compensation she received for COVID-19 leave, when no man was ever forced to do so.
As a result of the widespread harassment and accompanying inaction from the company, several employees sought mental health counseling. Others have taken leaves of absence for stress and panic attacks, and at least two have quit. One woman who left the company in 2021 after giving up hope of ever receiving better treatment recalled that “every day going to work I was just feeling drained, crying, stressed out. It was just somewhere you didn’t want to come to work.” Another woman, who came to Con Ed after working in almost entirely male environments for 21 years, told ODI that she had “never experienced the amount of disrespectfulness that she encountered at Con Ed in any other work environment.”
Attorney General James is requiring Con Ed to implement sweeping programmatic changes to improve company culture, reporting, and accountability mechanisms. As part of this, Con Edison must:
- Hire an independent consultant to oversee its compliance with equal employment opportunity policies and recommend improvements to its investigative procedures;
- Implement all improvements recommended by the independent consultant or, within thirty days, provide a written explanation to OAG explaining its decision to reject the suggestion and offering a reasonable alternative measure;
- Establish an employee resource group to discuss workplace concerns and make recommendations on workplace improvements for women in field positions;
- Designate an additional high-level ODI employee who will focus on implementing the settlement and ensuring a discrimination-free workplace for women field employees at Con Ed;
- Implement enhanced oversight of its diversity and inclusion practices; and
- Train ODI investigators on effective investigation techniques and how to make proper credibility determinations.
Con Ed must report back to OAG on the status of these reforms every six months for the next three years and put at least $200,000 toward implementing these changes.
Attorney General James has also secured $750,000 for 17 workers who experienced particularly egregious discrimination, harassment, or retaliation. This settlement fund will be distributed by a third-party administrator who will contact settlement group members directly to notify them of the settlement and begin processing their claims.