Clothing Maker FYC International to Pay $80,000 for Sexual Harassment of Women

/

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently announced a settlement with clothing manufacturer, FYC International. Though the Connecticut based clothing manufacturer has discontinued operations, the EEOC still held it accountable for what three female employees alleged was a hostile and sexually demeaning environment in its warehouses. The extensive allegations of sexual harassment brought by the female employees provide a textbook example of sexual harassment in the workplace and should serve as a warning for other employers and employees still maintaining a work environment where blatant sexual conduct toward women is normal.

In this posting we’ll discuss the allegations in the FYC case, the EEOC’s enforcement actions and the terms of the settlement in the case. If you’d like to talk with a lawyer about how sexual harassment laws and complaint processes might apply in your own case, please contact Eisenberg & Baum.

The Claims Against FYC International

The female warehouse employees who raised the claim against FYC alleged they were subjected to sexual harassment by their male warehouse manager and male co-workers since at least 2007. For those looking at the case from the outside, the allegations demonstrate many of the common sources and types of sexual harassment that can lead to a legal claim.

What is Sexual Harassment?

As we’ve discussed before, sexual harassment is a form of gender discrimination that exists when an employee is subjected to unwelcome sexual conduct that either creates a hostile work environment or is used a basis for employment decisions. In the FYC case, the female employees alleged that the sexually-oriented conduct of their manager and co-workers created a hostile work environment for them. For more background on hostile work environment claims, read our prior posting “What is a ‘Hostile Work Environment?’”

Who Committed the Harassment?

Harassment in the workplace can come from any number of sources, including management, co-workers, clients and vendors. In the FYC case, the victims alleged that the harassment came from two sources, starting with the warehouse manager and then spreading to male co-workers. The manager is alleged to have created the environment at work that not only could have been alleged to be harassing on its own, but also apparently encouraged other employees to act in sexually offensive ways toward female employees.

How Were the Employees Harassed?

Sexual harassment can come in many different forms, from verbal to physical conduct. In the FYC case, the female employees alleged they were subjected to all types of unwanted sexual conduct which led to the hostile environment. The warehouse manager himself allegedly made comments about female employees’ bodies, propositioned them for sex, and grabbed and touched them. According to the complainants, other male employees followed the manager’s example by displaying pornographic photographs at work, making their own sexual remarks to female employees, and discussing sexual acts in the open. This combination of physical and verbal conduct from various levels of employees at the FYC warehouses created a discriminatory environment, according to female employees.

The EEOC Process

The employees took their complaint to the EEOC, the federal agency in charge of enforcing the federal law that prohibits gender discrimination in the workplace, Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. In cases brought to the EEOC, the agency will often investigate and attempt to resolve the dispute between the parties. Where it finds the employer violated the law and the employer is unwilling to settle the case, the EEOC may decide to file a lawsuit directly against the employer on behalf of the employees.

In the FYC case, the EEOC investigated the claim and found reasonable cause to believe sexual harassment had occurred against female employees at FYC’s warehouses. The EEOC attempted to settle with FYC before bringing formal legal action, but the FYC rejected those attempts. In September 2014, the EEOC brought a lawsuit against FYC in federal court in Connecticut seeking both money damages for the employees and an injunction that would prohibit FYC from engaging in further sexual harassment of its employees.

Settlement Terms

With the real threat of a trial now facing it, FYC came to the negotiating table with the EEOC. In March of this year, the EEOC announced it had reached a settlement with the employer over the sexual harassment claims. Under the terms of the settlement, FYC will pay $80,000 in damages to the three female employees who raised the complaint with the EEOC. The EEOC also announced future protective measures FYC agreed to implement should it continue to do business, including hiring an independent compliance official, to ensure the incidents of sexual harassment stop.

You Have Legal Options

According to the female employees at FYC’s warehouses, they had been subjected to various forms of sexual harassment for over five years before they complained to the EEOC. The harassment may have started with the warehouse manager, but with this example from leadership, other men in the warehouse allegedly followed. Surrounded by this sexually explicit and aggressive behavior at all levels, the complainants could easily have come to accept this environment as a part of their job. They did not.

No matter who is harassing you at work and how long it has been going on, you can always seek legal help. If you believe you’ve been subjected to sexual harassment at work, please contact Eisenberg & Baum. Our attorneys have decades of experience handling sexual harassment cases in New York and are ready to help you with your claim. We offer free initial consultations for sexual harassment claims and bill on a contingent fee basis, so you won’t have to pay us unless we win or settle your case.

What Is Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment?

/

As if understanding the law isn’t hard enough, there are times when you have to speak Latin to understand what is going on. Because our legal system traces some of its roots back to ancient Rome, you’ll often come across Latin phrases in the law like caveat emptor, ex parte, and habeas corpus. In the employment discrimination law area, one of the most important Latin phrases to understand is “quid pro quo.” Quid pro quo translates roughly to “something for something,” and in the context of sexual harassment, it is used as a short-hand way of referring to those claims where employment decisions are conditioned on an employee’s submitting to sexually harassing conduct.

In today’s posting, we’ll talk about what a quid pro quo sexual harassment claim involves and provide a few examples of what these types of claims look like. If you’d like to understand more about these types of sexual harassment claims and how they might apply in your own case, please contact us.

Elements of a Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment Claim

As we’ve discussed in prior posts, sexual harassment is a form of gender discrimination that is illegal under federal law as well as many state and local laws. All sexual harassment claims involve some form of unwelcome sexual conduct. From there, sexual harassment claims typically fall into two categories: (1) hostile work environment claims and (2) quid pro quo claims. For more information about hostile work environment claims, check out our posting, “What is a ‘Hostile Work Environment’?”

In quid pro quo claims, a person in a supervisory capacity subjects an employee to unwanted sexual conduct in exchange for some beneficial employment action.

Who Is the Harasser in a Quid Pro Quo Claim?

The harasser in a quid pro quo claim typically must have some supervisory authority over the victim. Because the basis of a quid pro quo claim is that an employee is given some employment benefit in return for submitting to sexual conduct, the harasser must be someone who is in a position to provide that benefit to the employee. That’s not to say that sexual harassment by co-workers, contractors or customers can’t also create a legal claim, but those situations more often fall within the hostile work environment theory of sexual harassment.

What Type of Conduct is Involved in a Quid Pro Quo Claim?

The harasser in a quid pro quo sexual harassment claim must subject the victim to unwanted sexual conduct. The key pieces to this element are that the conduct must have been of a sexual nature and must have been unwanted by the victim. The conduct can be verbal or physical, with a supervisor subjecting the employee to anything from offensive jokes to physical groping and sexual acts in return for some beneficial employment action.

Whether the conduct was unwanted is determined by the facts around the harassment, and specifically courts will look at the victim’s own conduct during the time of the harassment. Even if the victim ultimately participated in the act, it can still be considered unwanted depending on the employee’s other actions surrounding the event, including whether the employee objected to the conduct either directly to the harasser or otherwise through their employer.

What Types of Employment Actions Are Typically Taken?

As part of a quid pro quo sexual harassment claim, the supervisor must have conditioned a job benefit or made an employment decision based on the victim’s submission to or rejection of the unwanted sexual conduct. Examples of the types of employment actions typically involved in a quid pro quo claim include hiring, firing, promotions, demotions, and decisions about compensation. The supervisor does not have to explicitly offer the employment benefit at the time of the harassing conduct, so long as the facts show that an employee’s acceptance or rejection of the sexual conduct was later used as part of the employment decision.

Examples of Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment

Quid pro quo claims can arise any time, starting with hiring decisions and ending with termination. For example, a job candidate could come in for an interview with the head of the department in which she would be working, and during the interview, the department head proceeds to grope the candidate and ask her “How badly do you want this job?”

Next, take the example of an employee who has been continually subjected by her supervisor to remarks about her body and sexual jokes. The employee tells her supervisor to stop and has reported his actions up the chain. When it comes time for annual performance reviews and promotions, the supervisor gives the employee a bad review and passes her over for promotion because she did not “play along” with him.

Another example could be an employee on a business trip with his supervisor. While staying at the same hotel, the supervisor comes to his room to talk about a presentation they are preparing to give but quickly starts making sexual advances on the employee. The employee steps away from his boss and asks her to leave his room. The supervisor responds, “Come on. I’d hate to see you lose your job.”

The employees in each of these examples could have a quid pro quo sexual harassment claim against their employer, though the incidents happened at different times in the employment process, in different places, and with differing degrees of explicitness on the part of the supervisor.

Contact an Attorney

If you suspect you’ve been the victim of quid pro quo sexual harassment, we encourage you to contact an attorney immediately. Quid pro quo cases often are not as clear as the examples above, and it can take an experienced sexual harassment attorney to help you understand the strength of your claims and your legal options. At Eisenberg & Baum, our attorneys have decades of experience handling sexual harassment cases in New York and are ready to help you with your claim. We offer free initial consultations for sexual harassment claims and bill on a contingent fee basis, so you won’t have to pay us unless we win or settle your case.