Gruntal Settles Sexual Harassment Suit

Wall Street securities firm Gruntal & Co. agreed to pay $750,000 to six current and former female employees who accused branch managers of sexual harassment, without admitting wrongdoing. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had alleged in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that two managers at Gruntal’s Madison Avenue branch engaged in repeated acts of sexual harassment. The EEOC charged that since July 1993, the managers allegedly made frequent remarks of a sexual nature that were accompanied by sexual gestures, touched female employees in a sexual manner and asked them to engage in such activities as sexual intercourse, oral sex and back rubs. The EEOC said Gruntal denied the charges. Gruntal signed a consent degree and entered into an agreement with the EEOC that ended the suit.