SECURITY FIRM TO SETTLE LAWSUIT.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - A private company that formerly provided security at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center has agreed to pay $237,000 and provide training to settle a sexual-harassment lawsuit.

Systems Application & Technologies Inc. lost its Dryden contract last year after the federal government filed a lawsuit accusing a male SA Tech manager of touching four male SA Tech security employees on their thighs, shoulders, neck or crotch, and of making sexual remarks.

``There were allegations of physical touching and verbal comments that were continuous and were ongoing in the work environment of the employees,'' said Sue Noh, trial attorney for the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed a lawsuit on behalf of the employees.

Under the lawsuit settlement, the company will be required to hire an equal employment opportunity consultant and to train its employees on sexual harassment, including same-sex harassment.

Supervisors will also be held accountable if they fail to properly forward sexual-harassment complaints made by their workers, Noh said.

The company must post a toll-free number for employees to use in making complaints, she said.

Because Maryland-based SA Tech no longer works at Dryden, the training and other anti-harassment steps will be imposed at the company's Oxnard office and a second small California office.

The $237,000 will be split among the four employees, who apparently no longer work for SA Tech, Noh said. The manager no longer works for the company, she said.

The lawsuit was filed last September by the agency, alleging that the incidents occurred from 2000 to 2002. NASA was not named in the lawsuit.

SA Tech had worked at Dryden for six years before its contract ended in October, Dryden spokesman Alan Brown said. It had 24 employees providing security at Dryden.

NASA officials were not made aware of the alleged harassment before the EEOC filed its lawsuit, Brown said. NASA vigorously pursues a workplace free of harassment, Brown said.