HOUSTON — Columbia Sussex Corporation, which owns and operates hotel properties across the United States, has agreed to settle a sex discrimination and retaliation suit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The settlement resolves the charge of a former banquet manager, Richard Knight, who claimed that Columbia Sussex fired him from its Sheraton Hotel in Baton Rouge, La., because of his sex, male, and because he complained that a female co-worker was not disciplined for the same purported infraction. According to the EEOC’s suit, Columbia Sussex terminated Knight because he complained about the general manager’s better treatment of Knight’s female co-worker during a meeting. In that meeting, the general manager ultimately demanded that Knight go into his office without the presence of a human resource representative, but did not force Knight’s female co-worker to proceed without a representative. When Knight asked the general ...