IBM Settles Workplace Discrimination Suit

By Nathan Abbott

Published on January 12, 2007

IBM has settled a lawsuit filed by a fired employee claiming gender discrimination. Jodie Ross was fired after 23 years of employment with IBM for what her supervisors dubbed inappropriate conduct, though Ross maintains that male employees who followed the same procedure were merely reprimanded. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, though both parties agreed to pay their own legal costs.

At the time of her firing, Ross headed a department that oversaw $300 million in inventory. During a 2004 audit, she created a checklist for tracking inventory and signed and dated it for 2004 and two years prior. Ross holds that she did so to show that the procedures were in place during those previous years, while IBM argued that she was trying to mislead the auditors into thinking that the checklist had been in use for that time.

Ross said that male employees who had backdated documents in a similar fashion during audits were merely reprimanded. IBM maintained that their decision to fire Ross was justified, and did not admit any misconduct in settling.

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