DALLAS (1080 KRLD) - Female Dallas County jailers who say they are the victims of sex discrimination by the Sheriff's office will get a full hearing before the 5th Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals.
Felesia Hamilton, Tashara Caldwell, Brenda Johnson, Arrisha Knight, Jamesina Robinson, Debbie Stoxstell, Felicia smith, Tameka Anderson-Jackson and Tammy Island say a change in a Dallas County Sheriff's Department policy forces them to work weekend shifts while their male counterparts are routinely scheduled for weekends off. The group says the reason is gender-related.
The plaintiffs say prior to April 2019, their schedules were determined based on seniority. "However, after April 2019, Plaintiffs were subjected to a discriminatory scheduling policy that assigned more preferred days off to men and gave less preferred days off to women." the original suit claims. "Only male employees are given full weekends off. Female employees are not given full weekends off and can only receive weekdays and/or partial weekends off."
The group says when they raised the issue with a Sergeant, he made it clear it was based on gender.
"He said that it would be unsafe for all the men to be off during the week and that it was safer for the men to be off on the weekends" the suit claims. The women claim them perform the same tasks and the number of inmates during the week is the same as the number on weekends.
Federal Judge David C Godbey granted a request to dismiss the suit made on behalf of the Dallas County Sheriff's Department in January of 2021. A three member panel of the 5th Circuit had initially rejected a sex discrimination suit.
But now the 5th Circuit has granted an rare en banc hearing of the full court to rehear the case. The hearing has been scheduled for the week of Jan. 23, 2023.
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