By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com
The Sacramento office of a private protection firm is accused in a lawsuit filed today of discriminating against older males by favoring younger females for armed security positions.
The suit, filed by attorneys with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleges that, in February 2008, Trinity Protection Services' Sacramento office discharged four men and three women because of their scores on an arms re-qualification shoot.
"While the men were told to wait six months before taking the re-qualification test again, the women were called approximately a month later and invited to come in and re-qualify," according to an EEOC release. The action violated federal law prohibiting age and gender discrimination, the release said.
A person who was contacted by a Bee reporter at Trinity's corporate headquarters in Maryland, but who would not give his name, said arms re-qualifications for the firm's personnel in California "are run by the Federal Protective Service," under a contract between the company and the agency.
The agency is a branch of the U. S. Department of Homeland Security that provides security and law enforcement services to facilities owned or leased by the federal government.
Under the terms of the contract, the person at Trinity said, after a failure to re-qualify, a Trinity employee must wait six months before trying again and, in the meantime, cannot work. With respect to the matter cited in the suit, he said that four of the individuals - three women and a man - re-qualified and returned to work after six months. Three of the men chose not to take the test again, and one of those complained to the EEOC, he said.
He expressed surprise and anger that one federal agency would sue the company over a procedure controlled by another federal agency.
Homeland Security did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
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