Could training of employees have prevented the following? Are you aware of affirmative defenses which are available if you train your employees?
Tuscarora Yarns, Inc. will pay $230,000 to settle a
sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced.
The EEOC had charged that the yarn manufacturing company subjected a
female employee to sexual harassment based on her sex and retaliated
against her for complaining about the harassment.
In its suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Tuscarora Yarns, Inc.,
Civil Action No. 1:09-cv-217), the EEOC alleged that Tuscarora Yarns,
Inc. subjected Lilia Ixtlahuaca Martinez to sexual harassment by the
former plant manager at its Oakboro, N.C., facility.
The EEOC said that the male plant manager propositioned Martinez for
sex, made unwelcome sexual comments to her, inappropriately touched her
and trapped her in an office where he sexually assaulted her. When she
escaped from the office, the police were called. The harasser was
arrested for sexual battery, but pled guilty to a lesser charge of
assault on a female.
When Martinez complained about the sexual harassment, Tuscarora Yarns
disciplined and suspended her in retaliation for her complaints, the
EEOC charged. Martinez had worked for Tuscarora Yarns at its Oakboro
plant as a linked winder operator for about two years when she was
suspended.
In addition to the monetary damages, the consent decree resolving the
lawsuit requires Tuscarora Yarns to redistribute its sexual harassment
policy to employees. The company must also continue to post its sexual
harassment policy, in both English and Spanish, at the Oakboro facility
and provide annual training on sexual harassment and retaliation to its
managers, supervisors and employees. Finally, Tuscarora Yarns must
report future complaints of sexual harassment to the EEOC during the
decree’s term.