A Lompoc woman is accusing the Laguna County Sanitation District in Santa Maria of denying her a job because she is a woman, according to a lawsuit filed in Santa Barbara County Superior Court on April 28.
In the civil complaint filed in Santa Maria’s Cook Division, Bethann Swiderski accuses Santa Barbara County of violating the Fair Employment and Housing Act by denying her a job in an operator grade 1 position based on the fact that she’s female, even though she is a highly qualified applicant.
Swiderski said that the advertisement for the position was canceled soon after she applied, and that the sanitation plant used a “back door” system of notifying other members of the public that the job was still available.
Instead of hiring her, Swiderski said in the lawsuit that the sanitation plant hired a “lesser qualified” male candidate as a trainee and allowed him to work as a fully qualified operator.
But Swiderski alleges that the plant had been precluding women from working there all along, claiming that this is the case because all of the female bathrooms were removed and every other employee at the plant is a male, except for two off-site administration workers.
“Laguna County Sanitation District has not hired a female to work at the sanitation plant for many years,” the lawsuit states. “Because no women worked at the plant and because management of the plant did not intend to hire women, plant managers removed the female bathrooms.
“Instead of having a female bathroom, all of the plant bathrooms are designed as accessible to men.”
Attempts to reach Swiderski before press time weren’t successful. Calls made to the sanitation plant and to Swiderski’s attorneys in Santa Barbara weren’t immediately returned.
Deputy County Counsel Victoria Tuttle told the Sun that the county hasn’t been served with the lawsuit yet.
This article appears in May 5-12, 2016.