sexual harassment Tag

JMF Law > Posts tagged "sexual harassment"

10 August

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Sexual Harassment on the Job

Posted by editor

in Chicago, Sexual Harassment

We are frequently contacted by individuals who describe inappropriate and often vulgar conduct that they have experienced at work. They inquire as to whether we believe they have a valid claim for sexual harassment. In many instances, we have to advise them that we cannot assist them, despite the fact they have experienced highly offensive conduct at their job. Here is why. Generally, prevailing in a case for sexual harassment rarely hinges on whether the conduct experienced by the employee qualifies as sexual harassment. Often, that is obvious, and in many instances the employee has corroborating witnesses, or emails, photographs, screen...

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29 February

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Jimmy’s Charhouse to Pay $205,000 to Female Employees Subjected to Sexual Harassment

Posted by editor

in Uncategorized

Jimmy’s Charhouse of Elgin, an Elgin, Ill., steakhouse, will pay $205,000 to resolve a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced Wednesday. The EEOC sued Jimmy’s Charhouse on behalf of female employees who charged that they were sexually harassed by restaurant employees, including managers. The case, EEOC v. Jimmy’s Charhouse of Elgin, Inc. (10 C 6181), was filed on September 27, 2010. According to the suit, employees of Jimmy’s Charhouse, including former managers, harassed several hostesses and waitresses at the restaurant. The alleged harassment included sexual propositions, crude sexual comments and groping. One of...

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11 March

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Sexual Harassment Settlements No Longer Confidential?

Posted by editor

in Sexual Harassment

Harvey Weinstein. Matt Lauer. Kevin Spacey. Louis C.K. Sexual harassment has become such a prevalent topic over the past year, that upon reading those four names above, most people can immediately figure out what all four individuals have in common – they have been accused of, and to some extent admitted to, sexual harassment and/or sexual abuse. A recent New York Times article has stated that following the sexual harassment allegations that were made against Weinstein, at least 71 other powerful men have been accused of sexual harassment and suffered serious repercussions, including terminations from jobs, being fired from movies and...

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21 July

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Emails May Sink Chicago’s Water Department

Posted by editor

in Uncategorized

When someone experiences discrimination at work – whether on the basis of his race, gender, age, sexual orientation – the victim should go to the company’s leadership to address and remedy the discrimination. But what happens when the discrimination originates with the very leadership who is supposed to make sure it doesn’t happen in the first place? According to a recent Chicago Tribune article, the Tribune had obtained copies of over 1,300 emails from the Chicago Water Department and found that many of those emails contained highly offensive, derogatory and discriminatory content and language that was not only entirely inappropriate for...

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16 July

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Study: Sexual harassment is a real problem in science

Posted by editor

in Uncategorized

Updated by Susannah Locke on July 16, 2014, 2:40 p.m. ET Sexual harassment and assault are problems that no one should have to deal with in the workplace. And according to one new study, even science isn't immune to such problems. "The study is the most in-depth look yet at sexual harassment in science" The paper, published in PLOS ONE, surveyed more than 600 anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists, zoologists, and other scientists about their experiences while doing fieldwork away from the university. And the picture was disturbing — there were many experiences of sexual harassment and assault, as well as little awareness of how to...

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16 July

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Whitman County assessor faces sexual harassment lawsuit

Posted by editor

in Uncategorized

Kip Hill The Spokesman-Review Whitman County’s longtime assessor is in federal court in Spokane this week, fighting a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by an employee. Joe Reynolds, who has served as assessor in Whitman County since 1991, described his office as “loose” and that employees “talked nasty at times,” according to court filings. Yet Brenda Arthur, who started working for the office in 2000, says Reynolds crossed the line, touching her inappropriately and making several sexually explicit remarks during the past several years. The alleged harassment prompted Arthur to request time off and to seek medical help for physical and emotional distress. Whitman...

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11 July

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St. Paul to settle police officer’s sexual harassment lawsuit for $60,000

Posted by editor

in Uncategorized

By Emily Gurnon The city of St. Paul will pay a former police officer $60,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit she filed last year. Sgt. Aine M. Bebeau claimed that her juvenile unit supervisor, Cmdr. Eugene Polyak, made "inappropriate sexual statements to her" at work and that department brass retaliated against her when she reported it. She also claimed she was subjected to a hostile work environment and discrimination as a Native American woman. Between September and November 2010, Polyak complained to Bebeau about his marital problems, told her he became aroused when thinking about her, reported on "erotic dreams" she inspired and...

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01 July

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Dating app Tinder sued for sexual harassment

Posted by editor

in Uncategorized

Jessica Guynn, USATODAY 9:55 p.m. EDT June 30, 2014 SAN FRANCISCO — Popular mobile dating app Tinder is being sued for sexual harassment and discrimination by a former marketing executive. Whitney Wolfe, Tinder's former marketing vice president, claims she was subjected to a pattern of abusive behavior including inappropriate private messages from a company co-founder while working at Tinder. In the suit, she alleges Tinder co-founder and marketing chief Justin Mateen stripped Wolfe of her co-founder title, telling her that having a "24‐year-old girl" as a co-founder made the company "seem like a joke." Dating app Tinder sued for sexual harassment ...

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30 July

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Vulgar Language Must Be Viewed in Context in Sexual Harassment Case: Court

Posted by editor

in Chicago, IL

by Judy Greenwald Published: July 27, 2012 Pejorative terms do not automatically establish sexual harassment, but they do need to be viewed in context, says a U.S. appellate court. However, in Kimberly Passananti vs. Cook County, there was sufficient evidence to establish harassment based on the intended use of the word "bitch," the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in its July 20 ruling, which partially overturned a district court ruling in the case. Said one attorney, in cases where off-color language is used, the ruling signifies the importance of finding out 'how that language was used to determine what steps the...

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22 July

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Get Schooled Letter to Gwinnett: Look deeper into student sexual harassment

Posted by editor

in Uncategorized

3:48 am July 20, 2012, by Maureen Downey Carolyn Garfein of Alpharetta is national president of the American Association of University Women. By Carolyn Garfein From our nation’s top college campuses to small towns in Florida, Texas, Minnesota, and, yes, Georgia, the painful stories of children and teens experiencing bullying and sexual harassment have filled the news, leaving parents, educators, and community leaders with many questions and few answers. Last year, in an attempt to shed some light on the issue, the American Association of University Women surveyed students in grades 7–12 and published the results in a report confirming many of the headlines...

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22 July

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Reedsburg McDonald’s harassment suit settled for $1 million

Posted by editor

in Uncategorized

Kim Lamoreaux, Times-Press The Reedsburg McDonald's will pay $1 million to three former employees who sued for sexual harassment. Ten women will split $1 million in a settlement reached this week over sexual harassment of employees at the McDonald’s in Reedsburg. Poynette-based Missoula Mac Inc., the owner and franchisee of 25 McDonald’s, was ordered to pay the women who were harassed and carry out a number of corrective actions, according to a press release issued Wednesday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Missoula Mac, however, no longer owns the Reedsburg McDonald’s; it sold the restaurant late last year to Lorrie Gorichs of Sauk...

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16 July

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City questions injuries, but cop wins top disability benefits

Posted by editor

in Chicago

By TIM NOVAK AND CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporters tnovak@suntimes.com cfusco@suntimes.com July 16, 2012 12:46AM Weeks after she leveled sexual harassment charges against some co-workers 19 years ago, Chicago Police Officer Kimberly Miller-Shemash suffered what turned out to be a career-ending injury when someone didn’t replace the lug nuts on her squad car. Challenged over the severity of her injuries, she had to sue the city to get a lifetime of disability benefits from the squad-car mishap — a deal that would become one of the richest ever given to an injured Chicago cop. She also ended up filing a sexual harassment lawsuit against...

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13 July

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Former FOP Secretary Sues Union For Sexual Harassment

Posted by editor

in Chicago, IL

CHICAGO (CBS) – A woman who was a secretary for the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police has filed a federal sexual harassment suit against the union. The lawsuit goes into some salacious detail, using words we cannot use. It accuses FOP attorney Paul Geiger of asking then-secretary Marie Marrero, “How do you like this” as he “showed her a Facebook picture of him shirtless and flexing.” Marrero’s attorney, David Lee, said Geiger harassed Marrero in other ways. Former FOP Secretary Sues Union For Sexual Harassment...

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09 July

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CIA cracks down on sexual harassment in its ranks

Posted by editor

in Uncategorized

Spy agency reacts to complaints of sexual harassment by women working in CIA war zones. Former officers say trysts are part of the agency's culture. By Ken Dilanian, Los Angeles Times July 4, 2012, 3:04 p.m. WASHINGTON — Spurred by complaints from women working for the CIA in war zones, the spy service is stepping up efforts to enforce what it calls a zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment by supervisors and co-workers. David Petraeus, the CIA director, sent a message to agency staff members last month to emphasize the initiative. He ordered a team of managers to meet with senior officers at stations...

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05 July

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Too many creeps see opportunity on buses, trains

Posted by editor

in Chicago, IL

BY DR. LAURA BERMAN drberman@bermancenter.com July 3, 2012 9:33AM Crowded buses and dirty train cars are just the beginning. Sexual harassment can be an issue, as is sexual assault in the form of unwanted touching, indecent exposure and public masturbation. This is especially true in Shanghai, China, where sexual harassment on public transportation has reached critical status. Too many creeps see opportunity on buses, trains...

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25 June

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Former Rams employee sues for age discrimination, sexual harassment

Posted by editor

in Uncategorized

Posted by Mike Florio on June 21, 2012, 11:36 PM EDT As Chris Berman would say, once is an accident and twice is a trend. Or something. Last month, former Rams equipment manager Todd Hewitt sued the team for age discrimination. Now, former executive assistant Lory Fabian has sued the Rams and executive V.P. of sales and marketing Bob Reif. Fabian alleges age discrimination and sexual harassment, according to Robert Patrick of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Fabian specifically claims that the Rams have been shedding “middle-aged women” and replacing them with ‘young inexpensive grinders’ who could handle the long hours of NFL employment.”...

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22 June

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City Hall janitor sues for sexual harassment

Posted by editor

in Chicago

CHICAGO (WLS) - A woman filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against a City of Chicago employee who allegedly took semi-nude photographs of her as she changed in his City Hall office. The woman claims she was working for Triad Consulting Services, a janitorial company assigned to clean City Hall, when the man offered her his office to change in and then secretly photographed her, according to a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago. The man offered the woman his office to change in, which she accepted because she had no other place to change, according to the suit. City Hall janitor...

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21 May

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Report: Sexual abuse of female farmworkers common

Posted by editor

in IL

By Tracie Cone, Published: May 16 FRESNO, Calif. — Female farmworkers across the United States are commonly sexually harassed and assaulted, in part because their immigration status makes them fearful of calling police, according to a report being released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch. The survey by the international rights group mirrors two previous reports on the risks facing women and girls that had focused on California, where most of the nation’s farmworkers reside. “Our research confirms what farmworker advocates across the country believe: sexual violence and sexual harassment experienced by farmworkers is common enough that some farmworker women see these abuses as...

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03 May

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Utility Appeals Loss In Sexual Harassment Case

Posted by editor

in Uncategorized

Consumers Energy is appealing a $300,000 verdict and thousands more in legal fees after a woman won a sexual harassment lawsuit. A federal judge in Grand Rapids recently awarded $684,000 in fees to Theresa Waldo's lawyers. The case was filed in 2006 and went through two trials. Waldo said she was a victim of repeated harassment by men in the utility's transmission lines department. There was evidence that Waldo was required to climb transmission towers on a cold, windy day without proper safety equipment. Utility Appeals Loss In Sexual Harassment Case...

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02 May

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Overlooked and looked over: women veterans tell their story

Posted by editor

in Chicago

by: John Bachtell May 1 2012 CHICAGO -- With extraordinarily high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and skyrocketing suicides, US military veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq occupations urgently need a means to share experiences and deal with the pain and trauma of war. And the growing number of active duty and veteran women in the armed forces need a means to share their unique experiences not least the pain and trauma of rampant sexual harassment, rape, assault and other violence while in the military. Women veterans are sharing their experiences in a powerful and eye opening exhibit at the National Veterans Art...

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30 April

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Sexual Harassment in the Warehouse

Posted by editor

in Chicago

By Kari Lydersen April 20, 2012 "We don’t go to work to be touched, to be talked down to, to be told what our bodies look like. We know what our bodies look like when we put on our clothes in the morning," Uylonda Dickerson said. But constant remarks about their bodies, and unwanted touching, advances, mean-spirited "pranks" and other forms of sexual harassment are a regular occurrence for many of the more than 30,000 women—like Dickerson—who work in the warehouse industry in the Chicago area, according to a report (PDF) released this week by the group Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ)....

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15 April

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More CEOs resign amid controversy

Posted by editor

in Chicago

MARK HURD, EX-CEO OF HEWLETT-PACKARD In late June 2010, lawyer Gloria Allred, on behalf of former marketing contractor Jodie Fisher, sent a letter accusing Hurd and HP of sexual harassment. A company investigation found no merit to her claims. Through the course of the investigation, though, HP said it discovered that Hurd had falsified some reports to disguise some expenses he incurred that ranged from $1,000 to $20,000 each for meals and travel with Fisher. Both Hurd and Fisher said that the relationship was not sexual. Hurd also insisted that the expenses he made were for legitimate business purposes and offered to pay...

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13 April

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Report finds many girls and LGBTQ students feel unsafe in Chicago public schools

Posted by editor

in Chicago

by Lacy Schley April 12, 2012 Sexual harassment strikes nearly half of Chicago public middle and high school students, according to a report released Wednesday evening by Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education (CReATE). And nearly 65 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer and questioning students feel unsafe, according to the same report. Other statistics released in the report showed nearly 11 percent of Chicago high school girls stated feeling too unsafe to go to school. Link...

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13 March

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Stonewalling The Public

Posted by editor

in Chicago, IL, Uncategorized

Dark clouds hanging over Sunshine Week cast a shadow on the First Amendment What’s worrying to journalists is, after years of sitting largely idle on the books, the Illinois eavesdropping law is starting to produce arrests. A Chicago woman was charged under the law after recording police officers whom she thought were preventing her from filing a sexual harassment complaint, and a Normal, Ill., man was charged with recording police during a traffic stop. A jury found in favor of the woman in the first case, and a prosecutor dropped the second, thinking the law in this case was worse than the violation. Link...

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29 February

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Loop Tilted Kilt Sued for Sexual Harassment by 19 Women

Posted by editor

in Chicago

Published : Friday, 10 Feb 2012, 12:46 PM CST Sun-Times Media Wire Chicago - Nineteen women have filed a federal lawsuit claiming they were sexually harassed and subjected to a raunchy and “humiliating” work environment at a Loop bar. The three-count suit filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday claims the owners of Tilted Kilt Chicago at 17 N. Wabash Ave., as well as a manager, created a sexually hostile, offensive, humiliating and degrading work environment. That included such raunchy behavior as grabbing waitress’ breasts; putting ice down employees’ skirts; licking employees’ ears and trying to kiss the women, the suit claims. Loop Tilted...

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26 December

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Ill. restaurant settles sexual harassment lawsuit

Posted by editor

in IL

The Associated Press CHICAGO — A company that owns a KFC and Taco Bell restaurant in Mendota has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit. In a news release Thursday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says it filed a lawsuit that alleged a store manager harassed female employees for more than a year. A federal judge and magistrate judge entered a consent decree to resolve the case. The EEOC says the money is to go to 12 victims. Also, the company that owns the restaurant, Mendota Restaurants, Inc., must pay money to 12 victims. Ill. restaurant settles sexual...

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13 November

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Cain accuser’s former boyfriend corroborates harassment claims

Posted by editor

in Chicago, IL

By Justin Sink - 11/14/11 03:08 PM ET A Chicago-area pediatrician who used to date Sharon Bialek, the woman who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment following a dinner in July 1997, said at a press conference Monday that Bialek told him after the alleged incident that Cain had "touched her in an inappropriate manner." Victor Zuckerman, who now practices medicine in Louisiana, said that when Bialek returned from a trip to Washington to meet with Cain, then head of the National Restaurant Association, to solicit career advice, "she was upset." "She said something had happened and Mr. Cain had touched her in...

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12 November

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Cain has another issue with women: Taxes

Posted by editor

in Chicago

Clarence Page November 9, 2011 When I first heard Herman Cain call his tax plan 9-9-9, it sounded like something I might have heard a fraulein tell me years ago when I was a GI in Germany: "Nein, nein, nein!" I hear that talk-show host Conan O'Brien made a similar observation after Cain, a top-tier Republican presidential hopeful, was hit with sexual harassment allegations. Now 9-9-9 sounds like a German translation of something Sharon Bialek might have told him in 1997 — "No, no, no!" That's when the Chicago woman says Cain tried to coerce her into performing a sex act in exchange...

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11 November

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Chicagoans React to Cain Sexual Harassment Allegations

Posted by editor

in Chicago

Published : Tuesday, 08 Nov 2011, 8:51 PM CST By Darlene Hill, FOX Chicago News Chicago - FOX Chicago News went out on the streets of Chicago to get reactions on the Herman Cain sexual harassment allegations, and this is what we heard: “There might have been something true, like maybe he did come on to somebody but I think maybe they're taking it out of proportion now and if they had a problem with it, they should have said something earlier." – Allison Kallo Link...

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08 November

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Cain to hold press conference on sexual harassment allegations

Posted by editor

in Chicago

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS November 7, 2011 11:22PM WASHINGTON — Herman Cain says he will hold a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Phoenix to respond to the latest charges of sexual harassment brought by a Chicago woman who graphically described an incident she said took place in 1997. With her attorney Gloria Allred at her side, Sharon Bialek offered specific details of the alleged advance she says Cain made when she was talking to him about getting a job. She is the fourth woman who has alleged that Cain engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior. Cain has steadfastly denied the allegations. Link...

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