20 AT&T Employees Allege Discrimination20 AT&T Employees Allege Discrimination

NEW YORK (AP)--Twenty current and former AT&T Corp. employees from around the country are accusing the phone company of racial, gender and age discrimination, claiming that AT&T failed to act on their repeated complaints about improper behavior in the workplace.

The employees filed a federal lawsuit against AT&T in Trenton, N.J., in November but held a teleconference Wednesday to detail their claims.

James Vagnini, an attorney for the employees, called this the first in "a wave" of similar lawsuits his firm plans to file against AT&T. The employees do not seek a specific amount of damages, but Vagnini said he believes AT&T owes tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in back pay and damages.

AT&T spokeswoman Cindy Neale said she could not comment on a pending lawsuit but said "it is AT&T policy to very thoroughly investigate any employee allegations."

The lawsuit contends that AT&T failed to punish supervisors who uttered racial slurs, made sexual advances on underlings, passed over minorities for promotions and gave preferential treatment to white and younger co-workers. The workers also claim supervisors retaliated against them after they complained of discrimination.