When a St. Louis city worker was fired for complaining about the advances of her supervisor, she filed suit for sexual harassment and wrongful termination. But what makes this case “strange but true” is the evidence she used to show that the boss considered their relationship more than just professional.
While the boss claims his relationship with the female worker was not sexual, the worker told a court she endured several incidents of unwanted touching and kissing by her boss.
Most shocking, however, was her claim that he had summoned her to his office, where he handed her a pair of tweezers and asked her to remove an ingrown hair from his chin. When she first refused, he warned that he could fire her if she didn’t help him.
According to court papers, the disturbed worker continued to refuse to perform the personal grooming assistance. Not to be deterred, the supervisor again tried to kiss and touch her. He also tried to prevent the worker from leaving the room.
If that wasn’t bad enough, testimony revealed that the worker was an acquaintance of the supervisor’s wife!
When the worker was later called in by the supervisor’s boss to say she was being terminated, she recounted the inappropriate behavior to him. However, she was told that she was really being let go for performance issues.
Initially, the trial court found for the employer on all claims. However, that was not the last word. The worker took the case to the appeals court, which found that she had a "quid pro quo" sexual harassment claim and a triable issue of a hostile workplace. This means that the employer now has to defend this claim.
Source: www.employmentandlaborinsider.com
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