Sexual Harassment Lawyer Blawg

Ameriserve Prez On Firing Employee: “Cancer doesn’t just go away . . . Get rid of her,” Says Sworn Witness in New Lawsuit

November 1, 2024 | by Friedman & Houlding LLP

Friedman & Houlding LLP has filed suit against Ameriserve for its illegal termination of an employee resulting from her cancer diagnosis. After a wave of public outcry over allegations that Ameriserve International, an organization whose mission is to serve those with intellectual disabilities, fired an employee for having cancer, a former Ameriserve manager has reached out with damning evidence confirming that cancer patient and former employee Megan Purcell was illegally fired because of her diagnosis—on order of Ameriserve President Dana Nielsen.

The former manager, who resigned from Ameriserve in disgust over its toxic environment, explains in her sworn statement that she was in the room when Ameriserve Executive Director and President Dana Nielsen gave the instruction to fire Ms. Purcell because she had cancer:

I was in [Vice President] Eric Seitz’s office with Eric, and Dana Nielsen popped his head in the doorway. Nielsen stated: “Megan Purcell has cancer. Get rid of her.” I responded to the effect of, “She has colon cancer, and has a procedure scheduled to treat it.” Nielsen then responded, “Colon cancer doesn’t just go away. Our insurance policy already went up with [another employee’s] kidney shit. Get rid of her.”

Alleged harasser at General Dynamics NASSCO Norfolk Facing Criminal Charges of Sexual Battery

October 22, 2024 | by Friedman & Houlding LLP

A Virginia woman, “Ms. Smith” (a pseudonym), has filed an EEOC Charge alleging that General Dynamics NASSCO Norfolk failed to stop sexual harassment by her supervisor following her complaints, and went on to retaliate against her. Public court records now reflect that the supervisor is facing charges of sexual battery of Ms. Smith.

In her EEOC Charge filed in June 2024, Ms. Smith alleges that from early in her employment as a firewatch at General Dynamics NASSCO Norfolk, her supervisor—the Firewatch Coordinator—subjected her to daily sexual harassment, which included sexual remarks, unwanted touching, and sexual come-ons. For example, the Coordinator asked to touch Ms. Smith’s body parts, asked her for sexual favors, and even kissed her face and grabbed her rear end and breasts. When she resisted his sexual advances, the Coordinator falsely told Ms. Smith’s higher-level supervisor that she had an “attitude.”

Ms. Smith’s Charge explains that she complained to her higher-level supervisor about the Coordinator’s harassment, but to no end: the harassment continued, including by the Coordinator falsely telling Ms. Smith’s coworker that Ms. Smith was willing to perform sexual favors at work. Ms. Smith was humiliated by his degrading remarks about her.

A Charge of Discrimination alleges Sexual Harassment of Employees and Customers at Coach’s Flagship Store

September 6, 2024 | by Friedman & Houlding LLP

Sexual harassment has run rampant at a Coach store in NYC, according to a Charge of Discrimination filed recently by a former employee.

Tapestry, Inc. is a global fashion holding company headquartered in New York City. Its luxury brands include Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman. Tapestry’s sexual harassment policy is illegal: it lacks the most important protections provided under NYS law, and for years Tapestry has been ignoring complaints by women that Luis Anzola, a Craftsman who has worked at Coach for three decades at their flagship store (“the pinnacle of the Coach experience”), has been sexually harassing them.

A young woman who started at Coach when she was just 23 years old, and member of Gen Z — the very demographic that Coach is desperate to attract — has filed a Charge of Discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It alleges that over a period of a year and a half, she made four separate complaints to the Store Manager, to Human Resources and finally to Coach’s District Manager, Brian Glass. She told them that Anzola was following her around, coming on to her, and touching her, and that he would spend up to a half hour at her workstation, staring at her and not working. Her first Store Manager agreed the behavior was unprofessional and unacceptable, and would not be tolerated. But although management assured her that it would stop, it never did.

UPDATE: Judge Orders Racial Harassment/Retaliation case against Excel to Trial

May 21, 2024 | by Friedman & Houlding LLP

In a text Order entered May 20, the Middle District of Louisiana confirmed that Weldon Moore’s claims of racial harassment and retaliation will go to trial, which was previously scheduled to begin July 22.

Lead Counsel Shilpa Narayan successfully led the charge to challenge Excel’s efforts to have Mr. Moore’s case dismissed. For his part, Mr. Moore has withstood the challenges of litigation, fighting for justice for more than three years to have his day in court.

Read more about the case here: https://www.sexualharassmentlawyerblawg.com/excel-usa-management-testimony-reveals-retaliatory-treatment-of-african-american-employee-who-filed-racial-discrimination-suit-weldon-moore-v-excel-contractors-llc-d-b-a-excel-usa-321-cv-00698-j/

EEOC Charges: Patriot Contracting in Reno, Nevada Retaliates Against a Victim of Sexual Orientation Harassment–and the Cancer Patient Who Stood Up for his Co-Workers

May 16, 2024 | by Friedman & Houlding LLP

A Patriot Contracting Superintendent subjected an employee to highly offensive racist and homophobic slurs—including the N word and “faggot”—and threats of violence, according to Charges of Discrimination filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) by two former Patriot employees. When the employee’s colleague stood up for the victim, the Superintendent retaliated against him, including forcing the colleague to perform work that was inappropriate and painful given his previously-disclosed status as a cancer patient, according to his own EEOC Charge.

Twenty-year-old “Kevin” (a pseudonym) had worked for Patriot as an excavator operator for five months when he was transferred to a Reno, Nevada job site supervised by a Superintendent in October 2023. This was one of his first full-time jobs, having graduated high school in 2021. “Martin” (also a pseudonym), a former law enforcement officer and highly experienced construction equipment operator, worked onsite under the Superintendent as well. As explained in the EEOC Charge he filed on March 6, 2024, when he came on board with Patriot, Martin—a valuable prospective employee who had years of relevant experience—had made clear to General Manager Ritchie Jensen that to accept the construction equipment operator position, Patriot would have to guarantee Martin wouldn’t be forced to work as a laborer. Martin had disclosed that he was a cancer patient, taking a daily medication to manage his cancer, which made laborer work painful and infeasible; he further disclosed that a preexisting knee condition also made such work unacceptable. Jensen guaranteed that Martin would only be required to operate construction equipment, not to perform a laborer’s manual work.

Unfortunately, as soon as Kevin moved to the Superintendent’s crew, the Superintendent began making extremely offensive and upsetting anti-gay slurs and remarks. As outlined in Kevin’s EEOC Charge, on a near-daily basis, the Superintendent would use the slur “faggot”—saying “hello faggot,” “what a faggot,” and similar remarks to Kevin. Before long, the Superintendent also targeted Kevin, a Native Hawaiian man, with egregious racial slurs—calling him slurs including N*****, monkey, and coon on a daily basis. The Superintendent behaved erratically and threateningly—displaying a gun to Kevin and his coworkers while announcing “this is for anyone that wants to fuck around”—and once placing Kevin in a chokehold with no warning.

Do Additional Sworn Allegations of Disability Discrimination at Ameriserve Int.’l Show a Pattern of Disability Discrimination?

May 3, 2024 | by Friedman & Houlding LLP

The outpouring of support for the woman who filed an EEOC Charge alleging she was fired after disclosing she had been diagnosed with cancer has been overwhelming and unprecedented.

Nearly 1,000 people expressed their feelings on Facebook, more than 100 wrote deeply sympathetic comments, and 12 shared similar experiences of being subjected to disability discrimination at Ameriserve.

Two former Ameriserve employees offered to provide sworn statements attesting that they too were fired because of their disabilities.

Threats of Racial Violence Must Never Be Tolerated

April 17, 2024 | by Friedman & Houlding LLP

Our firm represents an African-American man in North Dakota, who recently filed Charges of Discrimination with a federal agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In his first Charge he alleges racial harassment and retaliation against his former employer, Ironworks Welding, after two workers re-enacted “mock” lynchings; in his second Charge, he alleges he was fired one week after his employer received his first EEOC Charge, in retaliation for standing up to racial harassment.

In April 2022, our Client began work at Ironworks Welding, Inc. as a “single hand” in the Piping Prefab shop, in Dickinson, North Dakota. He was at the time the only African-American worker.

Beginning when he was hired, our Client believed he was being treated with suspicion, so much so that he ultimately told his Safety Manager he felt targeted due to his race, and not trusted. Nevertheless, he liked his job and wanted to succeed and help the Company.

EEOC Charge: Veolia Nuclear Solutions Human Resources Explicitly Refuses to End Harassment Against Transgender Employee

March 18, 2024 | by Friedman & Houlding LLP

Friedman & Houlding LLP represents a transgender female (“Charging Party”), who has filed an EEOC Charge of harassment and retaliation against her former employer Veolia Nuclear Solutions (“Veolia”), a federally contracted company that carries out nuclear energy facility clean-up and waste removal, at its Richland, Washington location. As alleged in her EEOC Charge, Charging Party was forced to quit after filing a complaint of a hostile work environment with Veolia’s Human Resources department. Federal contractors are under a special duty to proactively abide by anti-discrimination laws. The OFCCP is responsible for enforcement.

As a technician at Veolia, Charging Party reported to a Project Manager (“Project Manager”) at the Richland project facility. The Project Manager directed gender-based harassment at Charging Party on an almost daily basis, likening transgender individuals to “freaks” and pedophiles, and when Charging Party later informed Project Manager of her impending gender transition, he intensified the harassment, taunting her with comments about “chopping off her pecker,” and telling her that her gender transitioning was a “mistake” she would regret.

In addition, Project Manager would regularly make bigoted comments, including comments about trans people, on speaker phone, in conversations he had with colleagues and project managers in other facilities, as well as to the then-Director of Technologies—knowing that others, including Charging Party could overhear. Charging Party felt persecuted for just being who she was, knowing that management condoned such vile harassment.

A Newport News, Virginia welder for Skanska USA Building, Inc. was sexually harassed by her high-level supervisor—then abruptly fired when she refused to entertain his advances – according to recently filed EEOC Charge.

March 11, 2024 | by Friedman & Houlding LLP

Nakeya Livermon worked as a welder for Skanska, where she participated in building infrastructure for the Portsmouth waterside. Livermon was the only female welder on site. She was known to be an excellent welder, in an industry that has few female welders at all.

As her foreman noted:

Skanska featured Livermon in its promotional materials, making her a spotlight during Women in Construction Week

Worker at Disability Residential Services Company, Ameriserve International, Inc., Fired for Having Cancer in Violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act – Friedman & Houlding LLP Files Charges with EEOC

February 29, 2024 | by Friedman & Houlding LLP

Ameriserve International, Inc. (“Ameriserve”), an Iowa-based provider of residential services to those with intellectual disabilities, fired one of its employees because of her cancer diagnosis, in blatant violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and the Iowa Civil Rights Act of 1965 (“ICRA”), and its own stated mission, according to charges filed by Friedman & Houlding LLP with the EEOC and the Iowa Commission on Civil Rights to pursue these claims on behalf of the fired employee (“Charging Party”).

As alleged in her Charge of Discrimination, in November 2023, Charging Party was offered and accepted full-time employment as a Client Services Coordinator at Ameriserve, after interviewing with Ameriserve’s hiring manager Kyle Clemens. At the time Charging Party applied for a job with Ameriserve, she was employed at Catholic Charities, providing services to victims of sexual assault. She had sought employment at Ameriserve to further her career, given that the position at Ameriserve would be a supervisory role. A few weeks later, in December 2023, Charging Party accepted the position she was offered at Ameriserve and put in her resignation at Catholic Charities.

The next day, after a routine colonoscopy, Charging Party learned that she had colon cancer. After telling her supervisor, a Catholic Charities Director, the news of her diagnosis, the Catholic Charities Director stated that Charging Party could retract her resignation, take FMLA leave, and maintain her current health insurance, in case Charging Party’s prospective employer, Ameriserve, did anything to compromise her employment status there as a result of the diagnosis.