Home Depot Hit With Federal Lawsuit

Home Depot, one of the nation’s largest retailers, has built a “glass ceiling” to keep women from being hired or promoted, according to a federal lawsuit filed Monday.

“Women at the Home Depot have been treated shabbily,” said William Brown, attorney for four ex-employees from Louisiana who have sued the chain.

On Monday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced it would join a class-action case filed by four women in 1995 in New Orleans.

“In too many instances, women at Home Depot were hired only for jobs such as cashier’s positions, but not others,” said C. Gregory Stewart, general counsel for the federal agency.

“While Home Depot has a glass ceiling, it traps its female employees in what amounts to a glass basement, with glass walls,” said Stewart.

The EEOC is suing on behalf of about 22,000 women working in 310 Home Depot stores in the eastern United States.

Two other sex-discrimination lawsuits have been filed against the retailer in California and New Jersey.