Country club sued harassed workers

A country club charged with severe sexual harassment and racial discrimination responded by wrongfully suing the harassed workers!

“This serious and ongoing harassment of women was unconscionable enough. Then these defendants made a bad situation worse by punishing the victims for engaging in protected activity,” said EEOC Acting Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru.

“This kind of retaliation is plainly illegal, even if it is cleverly disguised as a supposedly legitimate lawsuit.” he added.

The 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 last week.

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.

The country club's seven-count complaint against the women 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.)

The circuit court of Cook County dismissed the lawsuit Chateau Del Mar and Gianakas had filed against the women.

Then the EEOC filed a second lawsuit on against Chateau Del Mar for retaliation, and three individual private plaintiffs joined EEOC’s retaliation case.

The judge signed a consent decree to resolve both the discrimination and retaliation cases on June 16.

In addition to providing for monetary relief to victims, the decree will prohibit 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.

“These defendants have marketed themselves as a venue for family celebrations such as weddings and receptions and have enjoyed considerable patronage from the African American community,” said John Hendrickson, regional attorney of the EEOC’s Chicago District Office.

“So the instances of discrimination in this case were particularly troubling. But we are cautiously optimistic that the consent decree spells the beginning of the end of on-the-job sex and race discrimination at Chateau Del Mar and Hickory Hills.”

EEOC Supervisory Trial Attorney Diane Smason, who with Trial Attorney June Calhoun litigated the case, said,

“The decree itself provides for monetary relief for victims of sex discrimination, and we now look forward to delivering appropriate compensation to individuals who come forward and identify themselves as victims of race discrimination.”

The cases were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and are captioned EEOC v. Chateau Del Mar, Inc. and Hickory Properties, Inc., No. 08 C 1720, and EEOC, Curry, Knable & Raddatz v. Chateau Del Mar, Inc., No. 08 C 5388.

The individual plaintiffs were represented by Timothy Nolan of the Nolan Law Office.

Chateau Del Mar and Hickory Hills Country Club are part of the Hickory Hills Resort, which also includes Condessa Del Mar, another banquet facility in Alsip, Ill., and PGN Fun, a miniature golf course and arcade, also in Hickory Hills.

The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on the agency’s web site at www.eeoc.gov.

Source: The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Female Firefighter Subjected to Urine and Straight Pins?

The Dallas fire department has a new kind of fire to contain.

The highest-ranking civilian woman at Dallas Fire-Rescue is alleging that she was demoted recently after complaining about lewd e-mails and sexual harassment from higher-ups, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Leanne Siri filed a federal complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Friday. Another female firefighter reportedly filed an EEOC complaint alleging men urinated on her bedding and placed straight pins in it.

Sexual harassment is not always sexual in nature. It's not always about sexual innuendo or requests for sex. It's not always about grabbing and groping.

Illegal harassment comes in many forms, including non-sexualized bullying directed at someone simply because she is a woman. If the bullying is severe enough or pervasive enough to change the terms and conditions of employment, it doesn't matter if the harasser even acted in a sexual manner.

If female firefighters are being demoted for reporting harassment, the city should take the retaliation claims extremely seriously. Also, if it's true, urinating on the female firefighter's bed and needling it with straight pins sounds severe or pervasive to me, does it to you?

I'm not handling this particular case, but out of curiosity, what might you consider awarding if you were a juror and you believed she had proven that all of the allegations were true?

"Get Something On Them - Whether True or Not"

What is workplace retaliation? Instructing supervisors to “get something on them, whether true or not,” because of employees' complaints of harassment. And then firing them.

N-W Ventures, LLC subjected a class of African American restaurant and bar workers to discrimination, including racial harassment and retaliation, according to a lawsuit filed by the US Equal Opportunity Commission.

Eight black employees and others were forced to endure racist epithets and insults on many occasions, according to the EEOC's lawsuit. When some employees complained, managers retaliated against them by instructing supervisors to “get something on them, whether true or not,” and then fired them in retaliation, the EEOC alleged.

N-M Ventures LLC settled the lawsuit, and besides paying $457,500 to the discrimination targets, the company is prohibited from discriminating based on race, and from retaliating against any employee because he or she opposed discrimination. Further, the company must establish an appropriate and effective reporting mechanism for handling complaints of discrimination, and provide training for its managers and employees with respect to the law against racial discrimination and harassment and retaliation at its Las Vegas facility. The company owns several bars, steakhouses and lounges in Las Vegas, Chicago and Dallas.

It's bad enough to instruct supervisors to "get something on them," as this is usually considered retaliatory hyper-scrutiny, but to say "whether true or not" is a revolting example of retaliation. Instead, the company should have protected the workers from retaliation, investigated the reports, and fired the harassers and retaliators.