Motorola Settles Sex Discrimination Lawsuit

Motorola has made an "out of court" settlement to stop a sex discrimination lawsuit going to trial. Theresa Metty filed the lawsuit against Motorola in July 2005, claiming that her dismissal as Motorola's chief procurement officer was based on her being female. Metty's attorney, Denean Sturino, said terms of last week's settlement are confidential.

Motorola's Chief Executive Edward Zander had been expected to testify at court today - prior to the settlement. Zander's predecessor at Motorola, Mike Zafirovski, now at Nortel - reguarly promoted Metty, although Motorola claimed in it's submissions to the trial judge that these promotions were unwarranted.

Metty was formerly was senior vice president and CPO for Motorola, where she oversaw all direct purchases, ranging from components and materials to third-party services and software. Prior to being CPO, Metty served as senior vice president and general manager of the supply chain for Motorola's largest business unit - Mobile Devices.

Last October, an attempt by Motorola to have the case dismissed by the court was rejected by District Judge David Coar. USA District Judge David Coar wrote at the time that Motorola had offered "offers very few objective or quantifiable measures pointing to [Metty's] performance failings, and there is evidence that Zander and those below him attempted to construct a record or paper trail to make up for that failure,"

At the time, Motorola issued a bullish statement stating that it expected to be vindicated in a court trial. A trial which will now not happen following the confidential settlement."

Posted to the site on 12th March 2007