Sexual Harassment Lawyer Blawg
An EEOC Charge Alleges that Andrew Whisler of the Virginia Diner Ignored Complaints of Sexual Harassment of a Minor
A Mother and Daughter have filed Charges with the Virginia Attorney General’s office and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC), alleging that they were both sexually harassed while working at the Virginia Diner by the Kitchen Manager. The Daughter was only 17, below the age of consent in Virginia, when she was physically sexually harassed. The Virginia Diner is owned by the The Virginia Food Group whose CEO is Andrew Whisler.
The following is taken from the filed Charges which quote sworn statements.
The Kitchen Manager said to the daughter, repeatedly, are you still a virgin, whoever comes between your legs is lucky, we need to get you a real man who can satisfy you and provide for you like a real man can. He put his hand on her back and rubbed it down to her behind. He said “Let me get between your legs” when bending down to get something while she stood at the register. Returning a few minutes later saying “did you get what I said earlier”? and when she said no, repeating his comment. Another time he pulled her hair holding on to it, while he walked away. Mother and Daughter witnessed the Kitchen Manager asking female hosts and servers about their “sex lives,” grabbing their hair and rubbing their backs, touching their behinds, and asking things like “did you get laid tonight?” and “did [your boyfriend] give it to you last night?”
EEOC Charge alleges COSTCO Vice President Paul Pulver failed to stop racial harassment
These facts are taken from the EEOC Charge against COSTCO. The victim and harasser’s names have been changed. For many years, “Jay,” a Costco Wholesale employee in Newport News, Virginia, endured racial harassment from his coworker, “Sharon.” Jay is Egyptian. Sharon regularly mocked his accent, made derogatory gestures suggesting he had a bad smell, sprayed Lysol toward him, and encouraged coworkers to ridicule him, because of his race, national origin and ethnicity. Despite repeatedly reporting these incidents to management for many years the harassment continued.
When he complained to his Front-End Manager on September 20, 2023, the Manager replied that she “can’t force employees to respect” him. An Operations Manager later acknowledged the harassment, but rather than helping to end it, suggested that Jay transfer to another warehouse for a “fresh start.”
On October 11, 2024 Jay escalated his concerns to the Store Manager who responded by saying there’s “something to earning an employee’s respect.” Even after bringing the issues to Costco Vice President Paul Pulver in mid-October 2024 the harassment continued.
SCA Pharmaceuticals called out for anti-gay harassment by new witness in Federal Suit
A witness has come forward and sworn under oath that a former employee of SCA Pharmaceuticals was sexually harassed and openly mocked by coworkers because he was a gay man. The following is taken from the Complaint against SCA filed in Federal Court and the Witness’s sworn statement. The names are redacted.
It was a recurring “joke” for The Harasser and his friends to ask The Employee how his girlfriend was doing, and who he would “chagachaga,” while thrusting their hips, to indicate they were referring to sex. The Harasser would rub his genitals, approach The Employee tell him to look down, gesture to his penis, chuckle and walk away. Since the harassment took place in front of a supervisor, The Employee believed that SCA was aware of it. Nonetheless it continued. In his sworn statement, The Witness describes seeing the Acting-Supervisor laughing along with offensive comments:
I witnessed our Team Lead . . . laugh along at these comments. . . .
Precision Planting Management committed shocking racial harassment of Black employee for years, says EEOC Charge
An EEOC Charge filed by an African American employee (the following is taken from the EEOC Charge) alleges that Precision Planting (“Precision”), a subsidiary of AGCO, has allowed racial harassment to continue despite repeated notice. For example, at a meeting managers joked about hanging and burning Black people and raping their women. Human Resources admitted it was aware of this incident and many others. HR told him he was an “emotional genius” for handling the abuse without having a crackup, but still failed to stop it.
When the Employee first began working at Precision towards the end of 2020, he immediately demonstrated his ability and willingness to work hard and achieve excellent results. Instead of congratulating the employee on his exemplary work, the employee’s coworkers and supervisors, resentful of having an African American employee do such good work, began making offensive racial jokes and comments daily. These comments included referring to him as “slave”, making so-called “slave jokes” because of how hard he worked, asking “why do black people work so hard?”, commenting “you must be from the south,” and when he explained he was from Arkansas, responding “that makes sense, you have a slave mentality, can you find other people like you?” meaning someone who “worked like a slave”.
Despite the Employee’s repeated complaints to management, Precision continued to allow and foster the racist environment through the years. The “slave” remarks and comments mocking his work ethic continued regularly. One coworker made numerous offensive comments such as “what’s 50 white guys chasing one black guy called? It’s called a PGA tour,” “Why do black people look like monkeys?”, “why do black people like watermelon and chicken?” and after a shooting in Morton, “I know it was one of you black people from Peoria.” His supervisor told him, “they’re just jealous, that’s why they make those comments.” He did not respond when the Employee asked why he did not do something to stop them. The remarks continued, unabated, on a daily basis. Nevertheless, the employee continued to excel in his job.
Marty Cook of Patriot Contractors Posted Offensive Racial Material on his Facebook page
Martin “Marty” Cook, is and was the Managing Member of Patriot Contractors, during the time two of its employees allege in their EEOC Charges (the following allegations are taken from their Charges), that they were subjected to racial harassment, anti-gay harassment, and retaliation.
Cook should lead by example. Yet even after the two employees filed EEOC Charges describing the racist abuse, Marty Cook, of Patriot Contractors, displayed a racially offensive video on his public Facebook page, as of the date of this blog. The video “jokes” about Black people all looking alike and Black people’s skin looking “ashy”, and presents African-Americans in a negative way.
Cook’s employees at Patriot Contracting may have access to his public Facebook page.
White Supremacist, Nazi and KKK threats against Black employee of Pipeline Plastics, alleges EEOC Charge
According to a Charge of Discrimination filed with the EEOC against Pipeline Plastics, our client (“the victim”) was the only African American employee at Pipeline Plastics working in the yard on his shift. Pipeline employs very few African Americans. On July 23, 2024, the victim arrived at work at Pipeline Plastics in Levelland, TX to find KKK and white supremacist graffiti in his forklift:
According to the EEOC Charge, when he reported it to the Plant Manager (“the PM”), he said “yeah I saw that and I knew it was going to make you feel some type of way.” The PM could have wiped it off before the victim arrived so he would not have had to endure it, but chose not to do that. According to a sworn statement by an eye witness, the PM told the victim to “wipe it off” himself. The witness testified that after this incident, Pipeline failed to take any action to prevent threats against its African American employees. The Charge alleges the PM just told the victim, “don’t worry about it.”
Pipeline should have held an all-hands meeting informing employees that racial harassment would not be tolerated. The Charge states that Pipeline never did, and that Pipeline should have taken other steps to find the culprit and prevent further racially threatening harassment.
EEOC Filing alleges Gates Corp. ignored report of sexual harassment — tell us about your experience at Gates
An EEOC Charge filed by a former Gates Corp. employee in Poplar Bluff, Missouri alleges that Gates ignored a report of sexual harassment, causing injury to the point that the victim had to seek treatment.
The Charge against Gates alleges that a Lead employee sent complainant vulgar sexual texts which bragged that “I touch your butt.” See texts to the left.
The Charge includes a sworn statement from the victim’s coworker which stated that “she showed me vulgar sexual messages on her phone that he had sent . . . including one in which he said he could touch her butt,” and that the coworker told their Manager what the Lead employee was doing to the complainant.
Is someone at Coach Protecting an alleged Sexual Harasser?
Todd Khan, Coach CEO
In a statement under oath a Coach employee testifies that Coach CEO Todd Khan and other top Coach executives are friendly with Luis Anzola, who is the subject of a Charge of sexual harassment filed with the EEOC:
3. Top executives at Coach, including CEO Todd Khan, treated Mr. Anzola as a personal friend. When they visited the store, they made a point to seek out Mr. Anzola to chat with him as soon as they entered the store. They appeared friendly and Mr. Anzola told me that they were.
Alleged harasser at General Dynamics NASSCO Norfolk Facing Criminal Charges of Sexual Battery
A Virginia woman, “Ms. Smith” (a pseudonym), has filed an EEOC Charge alleging that General Dynamics NASSCO Norfolk failed to stop sexual harassment by her supervisor following her complaints, and went on to retaliate against her. Public court records now reflect that the supervisor is facing charges of sexual battery of Ms. Smith.
In her EEOC Charge filed in June 2024, Ms. Smith alleges that from early in her employment as a firewatch at General Dynamics NASSCO Norfolk, her supervisor—the Firewatch Coordinator—subjected her to daily sexual harassment, which included sexual remarks, unwanted touching, and sexual come-ons. For example, the Coordinator asked to touch Ms. Smith’s body parts, asked her for sexual favors, and even kissed her face and grabbed her rear end and breasts. When she resisted his sexual advances, the Coordinator falsely told Ms. Smith’s higher-level supervisor that she had an “attitude.”
Ms. Smith’s Charge explains that she complained to her higher-level supervisor about the Coordinator’s harassment, but to no end: the harassment continued, including by the Coordinator falsely telling Ms. Smith’s coworker that Ms. Smith was willing to perform sexual favors at work. Ms. Smith was humiliated by his degrading remarks about her.