A
popular Hickory Hills, Ill., banquet facility and country club will pay
up to $690,000 to settle two lawsuits, charging sex and race
discrimination and retaliation, brought by the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced.
Federal
District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer has entered a consent decree resolving
the two lawsuits against Chateau Del Mar, Inc. and Hickory Properties,
Inc., known as Hickory Hills Country Club. Under the decree, the
defendants are required pay $590,000, including attorneys? fees, to a
class of women who endured a sexually hostile work environment and
retaliation, and, in addition, up to another $100,000 to African
American applicants who were denied hire because of their race.
In
the government's first suit, filed on March 25, 2008 under Title VII of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the EEOC alleged that the principal and
manager of the facility sexually harassed a class of women employees
over a period of years and refused to hire African American applicants.
Female employees were called derogatory names and belittled as well as
enduring sexual advances and, in some instances, physical assaults, the
EEOC said.
Shortly after three of the women filed their own
private federal lawsuit for sex discrimination on October 24, 2007
(captioned Curry, Knable, & Raddatz v. Chateau Del Mar, Inc.,
Steven Gianakas, and Hickory Properties, Inc., No. 07 C 6021), Chateau
Del Mar and Steven Gianakas sued them in Illinois state court. Their
seven-count complaint alleged a wide variety of claimed wrongs,
including, but not limited to, physical and mental injuries, ?tripping
and pushing Gianakas,? breach of fiduciary duty, and destroying
property. (Chateau Del Mar and Steven P. Gianakas v. Knable, et al,
Circuit Court of Cook County No. 2007L012463.)
An EEOC
investigation determined that there was reasonable cause to believe
that the women were sued because they exercised their federally
protected rights to protest discrimination. The circuit court of Cook
County dismissed the lawsuit Chateau Del Mar and Gianakas had filed.
Thereafter, the EEOC filed a second lawsuit on September 22, 2008
against Chateau Del Mar for retaliation. The three individual private
plaintiffs intervened in the EEOC?s retaliation case, and all three
suits were docketed as related cases before U.S. District Judge Rebecca
Pallmeyer.
Both of the federal suits were resolved by a consent
decree signed June 16 by Judge Pallmeyer and transmitted to the parties
June 19. In addition to providing for monetary relief to victims, the
decree will enjoin Chateau Del Mar and Hickory Hills from engaging in
sex or race discrimination or retaliation, and require that they hire
an independent monitor to accept and investigate charges of
discrimination and train all of their employees on federal
anti-discrimination laws. Further, Chateau Del Mar and Hickory Hills
will be required to place an advertisement in the Southtown Star
newspaper seeking job applicants who were rejected based on their race
from March 6, 2005 to the present. EEOC will determine who is eligible
for relief.
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