Capitol harassment

Two female Senate restaurant employees who contend that their complaints of sexual harassment by a male supervisor were routinely ignored by management will receive a substantial financial settlement.

A lawyer for the women, Sharon Cummings, announced Sept. 27 that the formal complaints filed in June 1992 as ``an act of desperation'' have brought the two a settlement from the Senate. Lawyers involved refused to identify the supervisor or the judgment amount.

The compensation, paid by taxpayers, will, however, become public in the Senate's semiannual expenditure report.

It reportedly was the first case resolved under the Senate's new procedure for handling job-discrimination complaints - authorized under a 1991 law that finally gave civil rights protection to congressional workers.