Best Ohio Sexual Harassment Attorney Answer: What should I do if I am being sexually harassed at work? If I report sexual harassment can my employer terminate me? Can I sue if my manager groped me at the office holiday party?
With the holiday season fast approaching, there are Christmas songs on the radio, lights on trees, Chanukah candles lit, and a slew of holiday office parties – which usually brings a slew sexually harassing conduct. For some reason, most involving booze, many bosses feel that because they are no longer in the office, the laws that prohibit sexual harassment no longer apply. This leads to flirting, groping, grabbing, and other lewd conduct by managers and supervisors. (See My Boss Sexually Harassed Me At Our Christmas Party! Can I Sue? I Need A Lawyer!; and Employment Lawyer: Halloween parties Can Lead To Discrimination And Harassment Claims).
At Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm, our employment discrimination lawyers have work very hard to protect and aid employees who have been sexually harassed by their bosses, managers, supervisors, or even customers. All employees are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and R.C. § 4112.02(A) from being discriminated against or retaliated against by their employers on the basis of gender/sex, including protection against sexual harassment. Specifically, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in hiring, promotion, discharge, pay, fringe benefits, job training, classification, referral, and other aspects of employment, on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
Most of the sexually harassing bosses and managers think that sexual harassment is no big deal. But, it is and it can cost the employer a lot of money. Let’s look at an example.
Recently, a settlement was reached with a New York-based laundromat to pay several employees a total of $582,000 after they filed a sexual harassment lawsuit a few years prior. The employees, seven female employees of Suffolk Laundry, claimed that they were repeatedly subjected to unwanted touching and lewd comments while they worked. Specifically, the sexual harassment complaint alleged that over the course of several years, the manager regularly touched the female employees on their buttocks, hips, backs, forcibly kissed them, and made comments about their appearance and body parts. The sexual harassment complaint also alleged that the manager subjected the women employees to verbal sexual harassment by conditioning requests for time off or for laundry machine repairs with demands that the employees sit on his lap or kiss him. The employees also claimed that the owners of the company retaliated against them for their objections to this treatment by reducing their work hours, giving them less favorable work assignments, and in some cases terminating them.
After the case was filed in early 2012, the employer moved for summary judgment against the seven employees. However, in September, 2014 the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York denied the motion, both for the hostile work environment claims and retaliation claims, and allowed the case to move forward. The court found that each of the employees presented evidence satisfying their claims, and therefore, summary judgment was not appropriate for the employer.
Faced with the prospect of explaining this sexually harassing conduct to a jury, the parties reached a settlement in the amount of $582,000, as well as other non-monetary terms in exchange for dismissal of the lawsuit.
So, as you are getting ready for your holiday party, bosses, managers and supervisors beware, and don’t grab, grope, touch, or ask for sex.
Sexual harassment is a form of gender discrimination. If you feel that you are being sexually harassed or are working in a sexually charged or hostile working environment, you should not wait to call the right attorney at 866-797-6040 to schedule a free and confidential consultation. At Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm, you will meet with a sexual harassment lawyer/hostile work environment attorney to find out what your legal rights are and the best way to protect them. Sexual harrassment is a form of gender discrimination, and employers should be held accountable if they discriminate against female workers in any fashion – but particularly for sexual harrassment. It does not matter if you have been wrongfully fired or are still employed, there is no reason to wait to find out what your legal rights are and how to protect yourself from sexual harassment and gender discrimination.
Disclaimer:
The materials available at the top of this page and at this gender discrimination, wrongful termination, and sex harassment law website are for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. If you are still asking “what should I do …”, “I’m being sexually harassed …” “my supervisor grabbed my…”, “my boss is touching…,” “I’ve been wrongfully terminated,” or “how do I …”, your best course is to contact an Ohio sexual harassment attorney/hostile work environment lawyer to obtain advice with respect to sexual harassment/hostile work environment questions or any particular employment law issue. Use and access to this employment law website or any of the links contained within the site do not create an attorney-client relationship. The legal opinions expressed at the top of this page or through this employment law website are the opinions of the individual lawyer and may not reflect the opinions of Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm, Brian Spitz, or any individual attorney.