A federal judge has allowed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to pursue a class-action lawsuit on behalf of female employees who claim that they were victims of sexual harassment at Caterpillar Inc.'s Aurora facility. This decision reverses an earlier ruling that limited the class to women harassed by only one supervisor. This ruling is important because it sends the message to employers that they will be unable to fragment and limit the claims which the EEOC can pursue in wide-scale bias cases.
See "U.S. wins ruling over Caterpillar class action", Matt O'Connor, Chicago Tribune, November 9, 2004