Sexual Harassment Lawyer Blawg

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.

Did a Double Standard Apply to a Male Victim of Sexual Harassment? Kindergarten Teacher at Southwestern Central School District Files Charge with the EEOC for Sexual Harassment

May 6, 2024 | by Friedman & Houlding LLP

Friedman & Houlding LLP represents a current employee of Southwestern Central School District (“Southwestern”) who complained multiple times to higher-ups about continuing sexual harassment from his coworker without any follow-up, according to the Charge he filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Two different principals on two separate occasions failed to address the male teacher’s complaints of ongoing harassment, and instead flipped the duty on the employee to do what he (“Charging Party”) could to avoid further harm – seemingly a different standard from what would have been applied were the alleged perpetrator male and the victim female.

Southwestern Superintendent Maureen Donahue later admitted, after the harassment continued for well over a year after Charging Party first complained to his school principal, that the Southwestern “should’ve stopped this sooner,” according to our client’s Charge. The Charge raises the question of whether Southwestern would have acted sooner had the complaining teacher been female.

The harassment was well beyond verbal to the point that the harasser was stalking Charging Party both in and out of school. The harassing teacher’s unwanted attention manifested in constant, unwanted physical interference of the Charging Party’s day-to-day activities. As described in his Charge, the harasser relentlessly waylaid the Charging Party throughout the school building, even in his own classroom, with unwelcome presents of pussy willow, notes of love songs, cards, poems, and, on at least one occasion, a bottle of Obsession cologne.

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.

Managing Director of Bright Data Won’t Take No for an Answer – According to EEOC Charge Filed by Former Employee of Bright Data, Inc.

March 22, 2024 | by Friedman & Houlding LLP

Bright Data, Inc. is a Delaware corporation and subsidiary of an Israel-based company, Bright Data Ltd. The Company’s United States headquarters are in New York City.

As alleged in her Charge of Discrimination filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, our client’s second-level supervisor, a Managing Director, engaged in inappropriate behavior even before Bright Data hired her, which escalated after her hire into blatant sexual harassment. Her supervisor attempted to engage in a sexual relationship with our client, “Jane Doe”, which she rejected, and for which rejection she paid the price of her employment, according to her EEOC Charge.

Doe interviewed for a position at Bright Data in May 2021. Rather than discuss work experience or Doe’s professional skills, and rather than describe the Company/the available position, the Managing Director asked intrusive questions about her personal life, phrasing questions in a way to elicit whether she was single or not. Doe felt compelled to reveal that she was not married, with a daughter – in other words, a single mom. The supervisor-to-be immediately began to tell her that single mothers are “the most diligent and efficient” “because they have no choice,” among other statements, in essence commenting that single mothers are at the mercy of their employers. Her boss would return to these comments during her employment, reiterating them on at least three other occasions.

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.

Annandale Millwork Files Statements with a Government Agency in the Midst of a Sexual Harassment Investigation That Have False Information

October 25, 2023 | by Friedman & Houlding LLP

The EEOC requires that the employer file an Opposition Statement. Annandale did so. It included statements that are false. Knowingly submitting a false statement would be plainly intended to mislead a federal agency’s investigation.

In opposition to the Charge that the Design Manager engaged in physical and verbal sexual harassment of the Charging Parties, Annandale relies on the sworn Declaration of a current employee (“Declarant”), who, under oath, states, “I have never felt uncomfortable working with [Design Manager]”—referring to the design manager at issue in the Charges filed with the EEOC.

She also states—under oath, referring to one former employee witness (“Former Employee”)—as follows: “I worked with [Former Employee]. [She] [n]ever told me that [the Design Manager] had touched [her] inappropriately or otherwise made [her] feel uncomfortable.”

Encompass, a Major Hospital Chain, Threatens to Fire Women who Complain about Sexual Harassment

October 24, 2023 | by Friedman & Houlding LLP

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This is the third in a series of blog pieces written for and reviewed by the Charging Parties which explains their ordeal

The CEO, the Head of Human Resources and the Therapy Team Leader Threaten to Fire Women who Complain about Sexual Harassment at Encompass, a Major Hospital Chain

The CEO and the Director of Human Resources at Colorado Springs were required to report to Headquarters that they were receiving numerous complaints of sexual harassment perpetrated by the same provider who had been the subject of the sexual assault allegation.