By Jeff McKinney
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The parent of Fifth Third Bank could face up to $900,000 in damages after the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against the Cincinnati-based banking giant, charging sexual harassment and gender discrimination against three female bank employees in Illinois.

The federal lawsuit stems from a claim filed a year ago by a woman who worked in Chicago at Fox River Business Development Group, a unit of Fifth Third, said Pamela Moore-Gibbs, a lawyer in EEOC's Chicago district office.

While conducting its review of claims made against the company by the female employee, Moore-Gibbs said EEOC found the alleged actions might have affected at least two other Chicago women, who have been added to the lawsuit.

"One person brought this to our attention and we found that it was more widespread during our investigation," she said.

Moore-Gibbs said EEOC will seek the maximum penalty allowed by law, $300,000 for each of the three women.

The alleged activities, Moore-Gibbs said, occurred in at least three company offices on Chicago's north side in 2001-02. She refused to provide additional details.

The suit, filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, charges that female Fox River Business Development employees were subject to harassment and a hostile work environment.

The suit seeks compensation for back pay, emotional pain and humiliation for the female employees it claims were injured by the company's alleged actions.

Fifth Third spokeswoman Stacie Haas on Friday acknowledged that the company was served with legal papers this week. She said Fifth Third is committed to providing a professional workforce, free from sexual harassment. "It is strictly prohibited and not tolerated," Haas said.

The latest lawsuit comes three years after Fifth Third agreed to pay $400,000 in back pay to workers in the Cincinnati area to settle allegations by the U.S. Labor Department that the company engaged in hiring practices that discriminated against women and minorities.

Fifth Third neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in its settlement of the earlier dispute.

E-mail jmckinney@enquirer.com