MADISON, Wis. — CUNA and a former senior executive have reached a settlement in the lengthy dispute stemming from allegations by a former executive that he was wrongfully terminated.
Lawyers for CUNA and former Senior Vice President Mike Miller both confirmed that a settlement had been reached but its terms are confidential.
"Both sides are happy this is concluded and it is behind us," said Miller's attorney Michael Fox.
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"The parties have mutually agreed to settle all issues involving the case. The terms of the settlement are confidential," said CUNA Vice President of Communications Pat Keefe.
In May, Clifford Blackwell, a hearing examiner for the Madison, Wis., Equal Opportunity Commission, recommended that CUNA pay Miller $75,000 in damages and additional money because after he was fired for complaining about his boss's racist and sexist comments.
Attorneys for CUNA and Miller reached an agreement before a scheduled hearing to determine what back and front pay and benefits CUNA would have to pay Miller.
Fox said that Miller, who has earned an MBA since leaving CUNA, "has won a couple of awards for his business ideas and plans to pursue them."
CUNA fired Miller on Sept. 9, 2004, "because of his exercise of his right to oppose a discriminatory practice on the part of [CUNA-Madison Chief Operating Officer John] Franklin," Blackwell wrote. He added that Miller's "continuing objections to Franklin's sexist, racist and homophobic comments played a motivating role in his termination."
On the subject of CUNA's work environment, Blackwell said the association has an "unusually high level of internal fighting and personality conflicts" and, while noting that CUNA President/CEO Dan Mica has tried to change that aspect of the culture, efforts were not successful in this case.
Keefe previously said during the case that "CUNA does not discriminate or retaliate against any of its employees under any circumstances and did not do so in the case at issue."
Miller, complained to his superiors after hearing Franklin make a range of what Miller considered inappropriate comments, including encouraging Miller to have sexual relations with current and prospective board members. Miller also said that Franklin made a derogatory remark about a credit union league president's homosexuality. Franklin, a former president of the South Carolina Credit Union League, said to Miller, "They just don't make league presidents like they used to."
Miller said other employees who heard those and other comments had complained to him, and he in turn complained to others within CUNA. Executives at CUNA ordered Franklin to apologize, but in one of its filings with the EOC in response to Miller's complaint the organization said Franklin's remarks were made in what he considered to be "a small group of men whom he considered to be friends."
Blackwell said CUNA's response to Miller's complaints "do not appear consistent or logical."
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