Texas Employment Law Blog : San Antonio Employment Discrimination Lawyer & Attorney : McKinney Law Firm : Sexual Harassment, Wrongful Termination : Texas

According to a report in the Sioux City journal, a federal jury in Sioux City has awarded a woman nearly $900,000 for sexual harassment and retaliation by her former employer.

Following a 7-day trial, Jurors on Wednesday found that Mindy Gilster had been sexually harassed by her supervisor and was subjected to retaliation as a result of filing complaints and her lawsuit against her employer.  Gilster alleged that her supervisor harassed her by making inappropriate comments about her appearance, pressing his body against her on one occasion and propositioning her.  She alleged that following her complaints, she was given a poor job review and denied a raise before she was fired in February 2011.

The jury award includes $600,000 in punitive damages, $240,000 for past and future emotional distress and $30,150 in back pay and medical expenses.

Read more here. 

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This week a former physician assistant in the cardiac unit of a Sacramento hospital was awarded $168 million in damages for workplace harassment.  The report is in the Los Angeles Times.  The verdict is believed to be a record amount in the US for any single worker. The plaintiff, Ani Chopourian, filed at least 18 complaints over two years before getting fired.

A few examples of the defendant's conduct: One surgeon's way of saying good morning was to declare, "I'm horny" and give her a slap on the butt, she said. Another liked to demean her Armenian heritage and would ask whether she belonged to al-Qaeda.

Not surprisingly, the defendant, Mercy General Hospital, plans to appeal.

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 In what may be a record-breaking award to a single plaintiff in a sexual harassment case, a federal jury in East St. Louis, Ill., yesterday awarded $95 million to a former employee of Aaron's Inc. Of that amount, $15 million was compensatory and $80 million was punitive damages.

The plaintiff said an Aaron's store manager made suggestive comments, touched her inappropriately and sexually assaulted her. Although she complained to a supervisor and called an Aaron's hotline, she said, the rent-to-own retailer allegedly took no action.

Not surprisingly, the company plans to appeal what it calls a "runaway jury" verdict.  

Read the full story here.

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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been ordered to pay $4.5 million in attorney fees to a Cedar Rapids trucking firm that the agency sued more than two years ago for allegedly sexually harassing female drivers, a federal judge ruled earlier this week.

The award comes from U.S. District Judge Linda Reade. She rejected claims by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that CRST Van Expedited Inc. subjected women to sexual harassment and improper touching when they were paired with male drivers in sleeper-cab trucks for long-haul truck driver training.

The judge ruled in October that she was dismissing the "poorly prepared case" because doing otherwise "would ratify a 'sue first, ask questions later' litigation strategy on the part of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission."  In her February 9, 2010 order and opinion, Judge Reade held that an award of substantial fees to CRST as the prevailing party was warranted because EEOC, among other things, acted unreasonably by suing CRST without first conducting the proper investigation required by law. “The EEOC’s failure to investigate and attempt to conciliate the individual [female driver] claims constituted an unreasonable failure to satisfy Title VII’s prerequisites to suit."

Ouch!

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Article from the Des Moines Register

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MSNBC has an interesting article out this past week called "Where ‘omg, u look gr8’ can land you in court" in which they look at the evolution of sexual harassment in the modern workplace. 

Welcome to the new sexual harassment. It's (usually) not about the stuff you see on Mad Men, and it's not chasing the secretary around the desk. . . . [It is more subtle now.] Those subtle areas can include everything from flirtation at a company party to a complimentary text message or an unwelcome invitation to discuss the latest project over dinner or drinks.

The article also has some discussion about the implications of the use of social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc) and the fact that it is somewhat easier to misconstrue an instant message or cell phone text message than it is a verbal statement. 

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