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Date: August 18, 1993

Location: Bridgewater

Title: CSC Partners Faces Charges of Racial, Sexual and Age Discrimination

Author: Diana G. Lasseter

Subject: Former employees sue an information technology megacorp and its subsidiary

Out of the fighting in Bosnia has emerged the term “ethnic cleansing,” referring to a campaign started by Serbian forces against non-Serbs. Half a world away in Central New Jersey, a group of former employees at Bridgewater”s CSC Partners are claiming their superiors initiated a similar strategy within the company known as image cleansing. The crusade allegedly involved weeding out anyone who was not young, not white, not college- educated and who did not fit certain criteria for appearance and background. In court documents the former employees charge that company officials announced, “A younger, well-dressed image is what sells the company” and then set out to get rid of anyone who did not fit that mold.

Seventeen former employees in the subsidiary office of El Segundo, Calif.-based Computer Sciences Corp. have filed suit against the company, its subsidiary and some of its top executives. They are charging the firm with racial, sexual and age discrimination. Industry insiders say the number of employees involved in the case, their positions and the length of time they worked for the company make the accusations serious. Those being sued include Andre Mallegol, Stanley Tom, Steven Stiling, Scott Mylchreest, Annette Tonti and Edward Becker. All of them are or were at one time managers or employees with Computer Sciences or CSC Partners.

Computer Sciences officials would not discuss the case in detail. Said Robert Gilbert, director of commercial public relations for CSC”s consulting group: “We believe these allegations to be without merit. CSC does not permit discrimination in age, race, national origin, religion or sex. It is against the law and strictly prohibited by company policy.”

Computer Sciences is one of the world”s largest information technology companies. In 1992 the firm, which employs 26,000, reported gross revenues of $2.1 billion. The firm provides consulting, marketing and computer system development. CSC Partners is a computer consulting firm. Since the mid-1980s, Computer Sciences has worked primarily on large projects for the federal government.

The suit by the Bridgewater employees is not Computer Science”s first time in court. In July, the computer company agreed to pay $2.1 million to settle charges by the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency that CSC made “false and misleading” statements and overbilled the federal government on a major EPA contract. The environmental agency claimed it overpaid CSC for work done by underqualified employees on a $347 million contract awarded in 1990. CSC also had troubles with a NASA contract over questionable billing practices. An administrative law judge later stripped CSC of the $170 million NASA contract. At the time, the judge said, “Fraud taints everything it [CSC] touches.”

The 17 former CSC Partners employees, who include men and women ranging in age from 41 to 62, are making serious charges against the company. The group first approached the Newark law firm Clapp & Eisenberg in July 1992. Lawyers Bruce McMoran and Mark Falk say it will take a few years for the case to go to trial, but meanwhile they anticipate a fight from CSC. The attorneys declined to comment other than to say, “We expect a long, hard battle.”

As a contractor or subcontractor on federal government projects, CSC must follow the government”s tough affirmative action guidelines and implement equal opportunity procedures. The company outlined procedures for complying with these hiring standards in its human resource management policy manual. According to the employees, though, CSC strayed from the procedures.

The employees filing the suit describe a company that sounds like something out of an afternoon soap opera. In 1990 Computer Science merged CSC Partners with another of its business units, CSC/CSD. Court papers say that Stiling, then president of CSC/CSD, was fired during the merger because of an on-going extramarital affair with one of the firm”s graphic artists. Stiling”s secretary, Anita Olive, is suing on grounds of sexual harassment because he explicitly described his trysts to her (see box). Mallegol replaced Stiling as CSC/CSD”s president.

Fred Milzoff, who was hired by CSC on Sept. 25,1989 as a personnel recruiter, makes perhaps the most detailed charges against the company. He had more than 20 years of recruiting in the data processing field, and in his new position was responsible for recruiting and interviewing technical employees for CSC/CSD.

Following the merger of CSC/CSD with CSC Partners, Milzoff claims in court documents that his supervisors instructed recruiters not to hire anyone who had earned a college degree prior to 1980. The management considered this part of its “quality interviewing” process. Milzoff claims further that his supervisors told him not to hire anyone with a foreign accent, anyone with body odors and anyone who did not wear a dark suit and a white shirt. He was also ordered to perform an in-depth reference check on a black job applicant that was not required for whites. Supervisors told Milzoff they did not trust blacks. When Milzoff complained to Mylchreest about the hiring policies, the manager said CSC Partners had been doing things that way for a long time and “knew how to get away with it.”

Milzoff, 49, was fired in August 1991. He claims he was told that it was because he made an error in advising a job applicant on how to complete an application form. Milzoff, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, attributes his mistake to forgetting to take his medicine. He later learned he had been replaced by three younger, less-experienced recruiters. He told BUSINESS he anxiously awaits his day in court. While Milzoff now has a new job, the conflicts at CSC Partners will not soon be forgotten. “It was a horrible, unprofessional experience,” he says. “I”ve not yet recovered.”

Milzoff”s experiences, particularly at the time of his firing, are similar to the 16 other complaints. Aside from Anita Olive, most of the plaintiffs believe they were fired because of age. Just prior to the so-called Bloody Thursday when dismissal of employees at CSC Partners reached its peak, Milzoff was told not to consider any of the soon-to-be-terminated employees for other jobs and instead to begin recruiting younger people. Former employees say management claimed the layoffs were a result of workforce reduction, even though the company was actively recruiting new workers.

As it winds its way through the courts, the Computer Sciences saga could well be turned into a business school case study of how not to handle employee relations. u

BOX: Was It Harassment?

In July the state Supreme Court helped set out what is considered acceptable workplace behavior between the sexes. Anita Olive and her lawyers will probably be considering those standards in their harassment case.

In 1989 Olive was hired by CSC/CSD to be president Steven Stiling”s secretary. According to court documents, Olive claims that in 1990 Stiling became romantically involved with one of the firm”s graphic artists, Jennifer Donohue.

After Olive learned about the affair, Stiling began to tell her in explicit detail about his trysts with Donohue in a company-owned condominium. Olive says she repeatedly told him she was offended by the stories. Although she also complained to other supervisors, no action was taken before Stiling was fired on April 27, 1991. Olive resigned later that year and wrote a letter to CSC chairman William Hoover about her experiences. She says she has yet to get a response.