• 26
  • January
    2012

When an employee goes to their California workplace, they should feel safe and secure whether it is physically or emotionally. An employee should feel good about bringing home a hard-earned paycheck. That paycheck, however, should never have been earned in an atmosphere of sexual harassment.

An Italian restaurant chain has caught nationwide attention after a group of female employees came forward describing a variety of very serious incidents of harassment and described an extremely hostile work environment.

Some of the female employees were not even adults; they were teenage girls who worked in the restaurants. According to the women, beginning in at least 2005 male kitchen workers harassed the women. After making a repeated number of complaints to management, nothing was done to correct the problem.

The claims included crude comments made against the female employees. They stated that the male employees often used vegetables to simulate sodomy and repeatedly used the same to touch the women between their legs. Some of the male workers also made inappropriate requests that the women physically and sexually touch them.

Instead of dealing with the lawsuit filed by the EEOC in federal court, the restaurant chain chose to settle the lawsuit. They agreed to pay $25,000 and to provide annual employee rights training.

When management fails to address claims of sexual harassment or correct the known problems, they are in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the laws of many individual states. If you feel unsafe or uncomfortable in your workplace due to sexual harassment, do not stand by but take action.

Source: eeoc.gov, "Rafael's Italian Restaurant Settles EEOC Sexual Harassment Suit," Jan. 18, 2012