I’m often asked, “Eric, where do you find this stuff?”
Why TMZ, of course. Break ’em off TMZ:
“Whitney Wolfe claims in a new lawsuit — obtained by TMZ — she was mercilessly brutalized by the other execs who wanted to remove her title because no one would take a site like Tinder seriously if they knew it was founded by a 24-year-old chick.
Welcome to Alabama, where they see your one-grope rule and raise you two grabs of the derriere.
Why? Because, according to this recent federal court opinion, the average female employee would not find getting her ass grabbed twice by a male supervisor to be offensive.
Now remember, that for a woman to prove sexual harassment, she must show five things:
We’ve talked a fair amount about sexual stereotyping at the ole Handbook.
Here I discussed the cluster created by offering crap assignments to a male employee because he fails to conform to a male stereotype.
And of course, we have my “Ravishing Rick Rude” theory of same-sex harassment, which a federal appellate court crapped all over.
Generally, a typical sexual harassment claim involves a supervisor or manager or co-worker making unwelcome sexual advances towards another employee.
But what if, instead of the harasser being one of your employees, it’s an independent contractor.
Does that absolve your company from liability? Is it a valid defense if one of your employees sues you for sexual harassment to point the finger outside of the company?
As an employment lawyer, part of my practice involves training employees and supervisors on employee handbooks. Most often, my training focuses on respect in the workplace.
During these sessions, I employ many techniques to discourage the workforce from engaging in behavior that could create a hostile work environment. Usually, I’ll put it like this:
“If you would feel uncomfortable sitting in a witness box while having to explain your behavior to a federal jury, then it’s not something that you should do in the workplace.”
Last night, I read this press release from the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, announcing a $2 million recovery for 50 male employees of a New Mexico automobile dealership.
What happened, you say? From the press release:
“In its lawsuit, the EEOC charged a former lot manager, James Gallegos, under the direction of Charles Ratliff, Jr., then general manager, with subjecting a class of men to egregious forms of sexual harassment, including shocking sexual comments, frequent solicitations for oral sex, and regular touching, grabbing, and biting of male workers on their buttocks and genitals. The EEOC also alleged that Pitre retaliated against male employees who objected to the sexually hostile work environment. During the pendency of the lawsuit, the retaliatory actions of Pitre raised such concern that a U.S. District Court judge granted a preliminary injunction against Pitre, prohibiting the dealership and all of its agents from threatening or engaging in retaliatory actions against case participants.”
I can actually feel the daggers that some of you are staring into me.
So, please allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is H-O explain.
How to demonstrate sexual harassment
[Cue music]
— Not a single one of you
But, faced with those facts, that didn’t stop one employer from moving for summary judgment and asking the court to dismiss a female employee’s claims of sexual harassment.
Could the company have possibly prevailed? Find out after the jump…
Oh wait, before we jump, I left out the part where the plaintiff claimed that her male co-worker also told her, “I’ll have you cum before you get your pants off.”
And then there’s the time when that same co-worker said, “Hey! we got your Christmas present!” whereby he held up a vibrating tool and thrust it towards the plaintiff’s genitals.
And what about the other male co-worker who would routinely come up from behind the plaintiff, lean in and smell her in a sexual fashion while pushing his groin into her?
Or when another male co-worker said to the plaintiff, “I just like fucking with you, why would I want to get you fired? I would miss watching that ass of yours!”
Ok, now we can jump and play did the employer get the case dismissed on summary judgment?
Recently, I’ve focused blog posts on some quirky cases that make you think a bit. Yesterday, was the FMLA in Vegas case. Last week, was the EMT who argued that getting fired for groping a co-worker was discriminatory in light of his employer’s decision not fire an employee who hit a patient.
Today is not one of those cases.
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