It is an unfortunate fact that more and more female employees are subjects of sexual harassment at their place of employment. Recently, our Orange County Law Firm has consulted with several employees who have been the subject of workplace harassment and discrimination. Recently, a school bus company agreed to pay $150,000 to settle allegations that a male supervisor at its Los Angeles, California facility sexually harassed at least four women, including bus drivers and a human resources assistant, as reported by the Beverly Hills Courier.
According to the U.S.Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, four female employees of First Student were sexually harassed, retaliated against or forced to quit. First Student builds itself as North America's leading school bus transportation services company. According to an EEOC lawsuit alleging civil rights violations, the supervisor made constant explicit remarks about the employees' body parts and the sexual acts he wanted to perform on them.
The harassment turned physical when the supervisor exposed himself, grabbed the breasts of a bus driver and rubbed his private parts against her body, according to the EEOC. The harasser cut another bus driver's hours upon refusal of his advances and promised extra hours to female employees who might submit, according to the EEOC, which reported that three of the victims felt forced to resign as a result of the ongoing harassment.
According to the EEOC, aside from the monetary relief, the parties entered into a consent decree, valid through 2012, which requires First Student to hire an outside employment consultant to revamp the company's policies, complaint procedures, investigations and training of its employees on sex discrimination, harassment and retaliation.
To successfully litigate a sexual harassment/retaliation case, it is important from the outset to get a detailed account of each specific instance of alleged harassment. Once a detailed time line is established, we will analyze the sequence of events to determine if those events were violative of California Labor Law, thereby creating a nexus between the offending actions and the client's damages. If such a nexus is found, a lawsuit would be filed and detailed discovery, including depositions of both witnesses and the alleged harassor would be taken. This process then yields the evidence that will be used to successfully resolve the case via settlement, private mediation, or trial.
If you or anyone you know is a subject of workplace harassment, discrimination or retaliation and would like our firm to analyze the events to determine if legal action is appropriate, please contact our Orange County office for a free consultation to discuss your rights and options.
