New York Paralegal Blog

LEXINGTON, N.C. - A Lexington, N.C., restaurant violated federal law by subjecting a female employee to a sexually hostile work environment, retaliating against her by reducing her work hours and then firing her, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

MADISON, Wis. – Missoula Mac, Inc., the owner and franchisee of 25 McDonald’s restaurants, has agreed to pay $1,000,000 and provide substantial injunctive relief to resolve a class sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today that a federal judge has approved a consent decree settling its sexual harassment lawsuit against Galt, Iowa-based Quality Egg, LLC. (EEOC v. Quality Egg, LLC, Civil Action No. 3:11-cv-03071-MWB).

Waitress and Three Family Members Fired for Reporting Misconduct, Federal Agency Charged ATLANTA – A federal jury has awarded $51,700 in back pay, compensatory and punitive damages to four family members who were fired for resisting sexual harassment at a Tucker, Ga., restaurant, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today.

Firefighter Tormented by Sexual and Religious Harassment & Disciplined in Retaliation for Participating in Another Firefighter’s Discrimination Proceeding LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles City Fire Department will pay $494,150 and implement widespread anti-harassment training to settle federal charges of discrimination filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.

PHOENIX – Major exterminating company Terminix and its parent company, ServiceMaster, will pay $140,000 and furnish other relief to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC had charged that two female employees at a Terminix facility in Salt Lake City were repeatedly sexually harassed by a supervisor. In its lawsuit, the EEOC charged that other supervisors were aware of the misconduct but failed to address it. The allegations included claims that the victims’ supervisor suggested to the female employees that they not wear tops to work, wear nothing but Vaseline to work and should be strippers so they could give him a lap dance. The harasser’s supervisor was also aware of the sexual harassment, the EEOC said, but failed to report or correct it. Sexual harassment violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Utah after...

ALBUQUERQUE -- A large national shoe retailer, Genesco, Inc., doing business as Journeys, has agreed to settle a sex discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for $20,000, the agency announced on 7/1/2011. The EEOC had charged the company with subjecting three teenaged female workers at an Albuquerque Journeys store to sexual harassment. The EEOC’s lawsuit, EEOC v. Genesco Inc., d/b/a Journeys, 09-CV-952 WJ/RHS, charged that Genesco violated federal anti-discrimination laws when it subjected Lauren Torres, who was 16 at the time, and two other female workers, aged 16 and 19 at the time, to sexual harassment by an assistant manager. The EEOC’s suit also alleged that Torres was retaliated against after complaining about the harassment when her hours were reduced and she was subjected to retaliatory comments by other Genesco managers. Sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, and retaliation for complai...

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Dolgencorp, LLC, doing business as Dollar General, will pay $50,000 to three former female employees and provide other relief to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC charged in its suit (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Dolgencorp, LLC, d/b/a Dollar General, Civ. No. 1:09cv00700), filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, that from at least February 2005 through at least May 2006, Amanda Strickland, Maria Strickland and Tina Baxley were subjected to a sexually hostile work environment while employed at Dollar General stores in Greensboro and Pleasant Garden, N.C. The EEOC alleged that the women were sexually harassed by a male Dollar General store manager. The alleged sexual harassment included offensive sexual comments, requests for sex and unwelcome touching of the women’s breasts and buttocks. According to the EEOC’s compla...

DETROIT – LensCrafters, a major eyewear company, will pay $192,500 to settle a female-on-male sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC had charged that LensCrafters subjected a male employee to a sexually hostile work environment at its Saginaw, Mich., retail location. According to the EEOC’s suit (Civil Action No. 1:09-CV-12694, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan), LensCrafters violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by subjecting a male lab technician to sexual harassment and failing to address his complaints that a female co-worker was abusing him. The EEOC said the harassment included the female employee touching the male and making inappropriate comments about his appearance. In its suit, the EEOC charged that LensCrafters fostered the hostile climate by disregarding the male technician’s complaints because he was a man. In addition to the moneta...

HONOLULU, Hawaii — East Hawaii Veterinary Center, LLC, a veterinary clinic in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii, will pay $101,000 and furnish other relief to settle a federal sexual and gender-based harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. According to the EEOC’s suit, a co-owner of the clinic regularly subjected female employees – who ranged from receptionists to a veterinarian – to harassing conduct since at least 2005. On a near-daily basis, the co-owner insulted female staff by making unwelcome sexual remarks, as well as disparaging and hostile comments about women. In its lawsuit, the EEOC charged that the clinic failed to exercise reasonable care to prevent and correct the unlawful harassing behavior. The EEOC also contended that the offending co-owner fired at least three of the women and forced others to quit. Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC originally f...

MILWAUKEE – A federal judge has issued a contempt-of-court order against a restaurant management company for refusing to post a court-ordered notice that was required by the court in a sexual harassment case brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman on May 31 issued a decision and order that determined Salauddin Janmohammed, owner of 17 International House of Pancakes (IHOP) restaurants, and management company Flipmeastack, Inc. were in contempt of court for refusing to follow a prior order that directed the company to post a notice for all its employees telling them the results of the EEOC’s sexual harassment lawsuit. The EEOC had charged in its original lawsuit, EEOC v. Management Hospitality of Racine, Inc., Flipmeastack, Inc., and Salauddin Janmohammed, Case No. 2:06-cv-00715-LA (E.D. Wis.), that the company subjected two teenaged servers to sexual harassment by their manager at an IHOP forme...

ALBANY, N.Y. – College View Donuts, LLC, doing business as Dunkin' Donuts, will pay $290,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced on 5/31/11. In its suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York (Civil Action No. 1:09-01320 TJM/RFT), the EEOC charged that the manager of a Dunkin’ Donuts store in Wynantskill, N.Y., sexually harassed female employees, some of whom were only 16 and 17 years old. According to the EEOC, the manager engaged in unwanted touching and hugging and made lewd sexual comments to the female employees. The EEOC argued that College View Donuts allowed the manager's illegal conduct to continue even after two employees had complained about it a year before. The manager was finally fired after the employees reported his conduct to the police and he was arrested. The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement thr...

TAMPA – Four Amigos Travel, Inc. and Top Dog Travel, Inc., related Florida-based travel telemarketing firms, violated federal law when they allowed five female employees at their Largo, Fla., location to be sexually harassed by supervisors, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed on 5/26/2011. According to the EEOC’s class suit, several of the firms’ male supervisors, including the general manager, conducted daily sales meetings which were sexually charged and raised sexually explicit discussions and propositioned female employees for sex. The harassers also inappropriately touched themselves and the female employees, made other aggressive sexual advances towards them and used derogatory terms such as “b-----s.” One male supervisor is alleged to have presented a female employee with a picture of his private parts and asked, “Impressive, aren’t I?” The EEOC says that the women were offended and intimidated by the harassment and were mocked ...

SALINAS, Calif. -- Monterey Gourmet Foods, Inc., a major producer of refrigerated gourmet food products, agreed to pay $535,000 to four Latino workers and to implement preventive measures to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, three women and one man employed as packers in the lasagna, tamale and ravioli production units in Salinas suffered sexual harassment by the same male supervisor. Starting in August 2006, their new crew leader’s conduct included sexual comments, texting obscene pictures, and unwanted physical touching. Although the employees reported the harassment to management and the human resources department, the company failed to take prompt and effective corrective action. I n May 2008, just weeks after two workers filed discrimination charges with the EEOC, all four workers were discharged or laid off as retaliation. “You should...

CLEVELAND – Dave’s Supermarket will pay $300,000 to four women to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced on 5/6/2011. In its lawsuit, the EEOC alleged that Jugoslav Vidic, a former meat department manager at a Dave’s market at the Lee-Harvard Shopping Center on Cleveland's east side, made repeated and unwanted sexual advances to female employees and that upper management, aware of his behavior, failed to stop it. According to the EEOC, the sexual harassment included an incident during which Vidic allegedly exposed himself to a newly hired female employee. The EEOC alleged that the female employee complained to Dave’s Supermarket about the incident, but that management did not investigate or discipline Vidic. According to the EEOC, Dave’s Supermarket finally fired Vidic after another female employee complained that Vidic sexually harassed her. Sexual harassment violates Title VII of th...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Delta Family Health and Fitness for Children, a psychiatric resident treatment center in Hamburg, Ark., will pay $87,500 to settle a lawsuit for retaliation brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC’s suit (Civil Action No. 9-1058) alleged that Delta violated federal anti-discrimination law when it fired an employee who complained about sexual harassment, an identified witness to the discrimination, and two other employees who had filed charges with the EEOC. One employee complained about sexual harassment on Jan. 4, 2008, and named a co-worker as a witness to the harassment. Both employees were terminated on Jan. 7, 2008. Two other employees filed charges of discrimination with the agency. Both of these employees were terminated on Oct. 24, 2008. Retaliation for complaining about discrimination violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Dis...

PORTLAND , Ore. – Willamette Tree Wholesale, Inc. has agreed to pay $150,000 to four Latino farmworkers to resolve a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, two sisters who worked at Willamette Tree’s Molalla, Ore., farm faced extreme sexual harassment. One was taken to remote areas of the farm by a supervisor, coerced with pruning shears, threatened with termination and bodily harm and sexually assaulted repeatedly over several months. When informed by a coworker of the situation, Willamette Tree failed to investigate or respond. Ultimately, the woman was fired when she refused her supervisor’s demands, according to the EEOC. The other sister faced graphic sexual comments, propositions and groping by the same supervisor as well as a crew leader. The EEOC’s lawsuit alleged that instead of taking appropriate action when she and her husband reported the h...

PHOENIX – A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco has affirmed a $65,000 jury verdict against AutoZone, Inc., the Memphis-based national auto parts retail giant, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today. The EEOC had sued AutoZone (EEOC v. AutoZone, Inc., CIV 06-926-PHX-SMM, U.S. Dist. Court for the Dist. of Ariz.) for creating a sexually hostile work environment for Stacy Wing, an employee at an AutoZone store in Mesa, Ariz. Wing reported the sexual harassment to AutoZone management, the EEOC said, but AutoZone failed to take immediate and appropriate action to stop it. The evidence at the resulting jury trial showed that Wing was subjected to egregious sexual harassment by AutoZone’s store manager, including repeatedly forcing Wing’s face down to his genitals and making crude sexual remarks to her. At least one such incident was captured and recorded on the store’s video camera system but AutoZone claime...

Owner Fostered Sexually Hostile Work Environment, Federal Agency Charged DETROIT -- Patton Archery Manufacturing, Inc., a former manufacturer of archery components in Vulcan, Mich., has agreed to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for $21,000 and other relief, the agency announced today. The EEOC’s lawsuit, Case No. 2:09:CV-205 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, charged that the owner of Patton Archery subjected three female bow sanders, Brenda Maynard, Julie Roberts and Leslie Querio, to a sexually hostile work environment. The misconduct ranged from telling and disseminating detailed sexual jokes to bold and unwanted physical touching, the EEOC said.