Think it’s a ‘man’s world?’ $80,000 says it’s not.
Doing nothing when coworkers are sexually harassing an employee is a costly choice. The price a North Carolina highway construction firm must pay for its lack of response to inappropriate employee behavior is $80,000.
The company is required to pay that amount to a female employee who endured ongoing sexual harassment and verbal abuse from male coworkers, including being told by one that, “this is a man’s world” and “if you can’t handle it then go work for [a retail store],” according to the lawsuit filed by U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
A history of harassment
The employee dealt with an abusive work environment for more than a year after joining the company as a truck driver in 2020, according to the complaint filed by the agency.
The harassment included a coworker asking the employee to “talk dirty” to him, “asking her for photos of her breasts,” and sending her sexually explicit text messages, noted the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Some of the text messages included photos of his genitals, the complaint says.
When the employee reported the harassment to a supervisor, the supervisor “laughed and said, ‘that’s just how (the coworker) is,’” according to the complaint.
Another male coworker was openly hostile toward the female employee calling her “sexually derogatory” names, the complaint says. When she tried to speak with other coworkers, this coworker would tell her to shut up, using sexually explicit language, and the other employees would laugh in response.
Complaints were brushed off
The female employee also complained to her supervisor about this behavior to no avail, according to the complaint, which says it “did not stop.”
“Other male coworkers also made vulgar sex-based insults and disparaging comments about women and toward (her) throughout her employment,” the complaint says.
After being ignored by the supervisor, the employee complained to the company’s upper management. They reassigned her from a “sought-after” work project to a “less-desirable” assignment, which the EEOC complaint says was done in retaliation.
Inaction allowed further abuse
About a year after the EEOC brought the lawsuit, the company agreed to settle the case by paying $80,000 in damages and providing additional relief, the agency announced in a September 9 news release.
The EEOC’s lawsuit accused the company of allowing the sexual harassment to continue by disregarding it. The company’s “inaction allowed the male employees to further abuse (the woman), causing her significant and continuing distress,” the complaint says.
According to the EEOC, as part of a two-year consent decree, the company must:
- Implement an updated anti-discrimination and harassment policy,
- Train managers and employees on sexual harassment and retaliation, and
- Refrain from discriminating against employees because of their sex.
The company also agreed to provide periodic reports to the EEOC.
The case illustrates that employers need to take swift action on employee complaints of sexual harassment before the conduct escalates. Failure to do so violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination and harassment in the workplace.
Key to remember: A highway construction company must pay $80,000 to an employee who was repeatedly sexually harassed and retaliated against, and whose complaints were ignored by company management.
