Celia Coleman is suing the $20.6 billion PenFed Credit Union, her former employer of 31 years, for $5 million alleging that for the last seven years of her employment she was allegedly subjected to extreme mental abuse, physical abuse, sexual harassment and age discrimination.
Robin Pence, PenFed’s vice president of public relations and corporate communications, said Thursday the credit union does not publicly comment on litigation.
Coleman, 55, of Brandywine, Md., is also suing four women employees of PenFed. The CU Times is not identifying the women named as defendants.
Coleman was a card fraud specialist and previously served as an operations officer and senior ATM network analyst for the Alexandria, Va.-based credit union, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Starting in 2009, a woman supervisor allegedly touched and rubbed Coleman’s shoulders and hit her that caused bruises on her body. The lawsuit claims that the woman sexually demeaned and assaulted Coleman repeatedly.
The lawsuit also claims that the other three women encouraged and condoned the sexual harassment and they targeted Coleman for termination.
Coleman reported the sexual harassment, but the lawsuit alleges it was covered up and no disciplinary action was taken against the supervisor woman. Coleman however, was transferred to the credit card fraud department and the sexual harassment. But in July 2016, the supervisor woman, who allegedly committed the sexual harassment, was assigned to work with Coleman.
“This was a sinister tactic implored by the management of Pentagon Federal Credit Union to target and force the plaintiff out of her job into a forced retirement that had a substantial less cash value than had she been permitted to continue to work another 15 years until age 70, which was mandatory retirement,” the lawsuit states.
After Coleman filed an HR complaint in July 2016 that she could not be subjected to any offensive touching, physical or mental abuse from this supervisor woman, PenFed allegedly did not investigate the veracity of the allegations.
Instead, the three other women created a fraudulent written reprimand against Coleman. When Coleman refused to sign the reprimand without the benefit of counsel, the three women “mobbed” her and exerted a “tremendous amount of mental pressure” on Coleman to sign the reprimand. The women allegedly used “threatening and coercive language.”
Coleman was fired in September 2016.
“These actions were retaliatory in nature and meant to protect the defendant (the woman supervisor) at the expense of the plaintiff and (to) forcibly drive her out of the company attempting to disguise the termination as a voluntary acceptance of retirement, when in reality, it was a cold and calculating termination,” according to the lawsuit.
In addition, from 2009 to 2016, the lawsuit alleged that numerous inappropriate and discriminatory comments were made by another supervisor regarding Coleman that “she was too old to worth with.” The lawsuit claims that PenFed was aware of these comments and allegedly “encouraged and ratified” this type of discriminatory conduct.”
The lawsuit also accuses PenFed and the four women of unlawful retaliation, creating a hostile work environment, wrongful discharge, negligent supervision and negligent retention.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. on Jan. 4.
Coleman’s lawyer, Christopher Fitzpatrick of Annapolis, Md., did not return a CU Times phone message before a Friday morning deadline seeking comment.
