Former DHSS employee wins monetary compensation in discrimination lawsuit against ASG

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A federal judge in Honolulu has approved the Consent Decree, which resolves and settles, the U.S Justice Department’s lawsuit against the American Samoa Government over allegations that the territorial government discriminated against a former employee, Simeonica Tuiteleleapaga, because she is a transgender woman.

Provisions of the 25-page consent decree — approved Tuesday by U.S. Senior District Court Judge, Helen Gilmor — requires ASG to pay $125,000 to compensate Tuiteleleapaga for the harassment she suffered at the hands of her supervisor — the late Dr. Meki Solomona, who was director of the Department of Human and Social Service at the time of the allegations.

The complaint against ASG is due to violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which is a federal statute that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion and sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity, and prohibits retaliation against employees for opposing discriminatory employment practices, according to USDOJ.

In a national news release early yesterday morning (local time), the USDOJ announced the settlement in the case, with Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Civil Rights Division, saying that: “Discrimination against transgender employees is discrimination based on their sex, and no employee should have to tolerate a supervisor’s hostile comments about their gender identity.”

“Transgender employees must be free from discrimination, harassment or derision in the workplace. The Justice Department will not tolerate discrimination based on an employee’s sex or gender identity and will safeguard the rights of vulnerable workers, including LGBTQI+ employees,” Clarke is quoted in the news release.

As previously reported by Samoa News, USDOJ in May this year, filed a civil action lawsuit against ASG/DHSS for “discriminating against” Tuiteleleapaga “on the basis of her sex by maintaining a work environment hostile to her because she is a transgender woman.”

The civil action suit was the result of a discrimination complaint filed by Tuiteleleapaga — who worked for the DHSS from 1995 until 2022 — in January 2017 with the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

“Tuiteleleapaga alleged that in late 2016, she was subjected to discrimination based on her sex. Specifically, she alleged that the DHSS subjected her to a hostile work environment because she is a transgender woman,” according to federal court documents, which cited several examples of alleged discriminatory actions by Dr. Solomona against Tuiteleleapaga. (See Samoa News edition May 16 for details.)

The consent decree briefly summarized the complaint and points out that “ASG denies it discriminated or retaliated against Ms. Tuiteleleapaga in violation of Title VII.”

Nevertheless, the USDOJ and ASG — the parties in this case — desiring that this action be settled by an appropriate Consent Decree, and to avoid the burdens and risks of protracted litigation, agree to the federal court in Honolulu to take jurisdiction over this action.

The decree, “shall in no way constitute an adjudication or finding on the merits of the case, nor be construed as an admission by the ASG or a finding of wrongdoing or violation of any applicable federal law or regulation.”

Outlined in details under several provisions of the decree are corrective actions to be implemented by ASG. For example, the decree requires the ASG to adopt new policies and procedures to handle sex based discrimination complaints and to provide its employees training on these new policies.

Additionally, the ASG has designated the director of the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity to serve as the “EEO Officer” for the purpose of this decree.

Furthermore, the EEO Officer shall ensure that ASG implements the relief required by the decree. And the EEO Officer shall also ensure that investigations of prohibited forms of harassment and retaliation are investigated in accordance with terms of the decree.

By late yesterday morning many off-island news outlets and others have reported and posted on their websites the USDOJ news release on the settlement with ASG.

And the news release cited one-specific incident — based on the lawsuit — in which Tuiteleleapaga was humiliated by Dr. Solomona during a department-wide meeting — which someone made an audio recording of and shared it with local media.

According to the complaint, Dr. Solomona threatened to eliminate Tuiteleleapaga’s position, asked her if she was a “girl or a boy” and told her to “[t]ake it off” and “let us see if you are a woman.” After Tuiteleleapaga left the meeting in tears, Solomona continued his tirade for 40 minutes, repeatedly referring to her as a “thing” or an “it.”

After the meeting, as described in the complaint, Solomona attempted to transfer her to another work location; mis-gendered her to her supervisor; attempted to terminate her; and refused to allow her routine work travel authorizations, according to federal prosecutors.

“The ASG failed to take any actions to stop his [Solomona’s] harassment,” said USDOJ, which also released yesterday the consent decree. (Click on attachment to download pdf of decree.)

The Fono recently passed the appropriation bill submitted by the administration that included payment of $100,000 to Tuiteleleapaga, as part of the settlement, with the balance of $25,000 coming from the Attorney General’s Office.