Harassment in the Workplace Attorney in Manhattan Beach, California
Sexual Harassment in Employment
Sexual Harassment in Employment
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I handle a lot of sexual harassment in the workplace cases, and these cases are particularly devastating because, you know, it’s hard enough for someone to endure sexual harassment or sexual assault, but then to have it at your workplace, the place that you need to go every day to make money. That’s very damaging on a person. We handle a lot of cases that involve not only sexual harassment with words, pictures, a hostile work environment, but also sexual assault in the workplace where someone’s actually been, you know, touched, or assaulted at their place of employment by the person who employs them. One case that was very memorable to me was a case against the city of Long Beach Parks and Recreation Department. They employed a man who was obviously, you know, a pedophile, and he would hire these – he would hire younger boys, 17, 18, 19 years old, and he would engage in what’s called quid pro quo harassment.
The perpetrator, the pedophile, he would offer them extra money on their timecard in exchange for him being able to see their genitals, or watch them perform some sort of sexual act, all in the workplace, all during work hours. The biggest challenge in that case was putting responsibility onto the employer as a whole, rather than just that one pedophile that they employed, and the way that we did that was showing that the employer had received all of these complaints about the perpetrator. The city had all this knowledge that the perpetrator had been engaging in this type of behavior before, was just kind of a bad guy in general, and they didn’t do anything about it. They, in essence, allowed this to happen, so that was the tough part, was finding all of those little pieces to make sure that we can hold, you know, the employer as a whole responsible, rather than them just being able to say, “Oh, it was this one rogue employee who did something bad.”
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Los Angeles, CA sexual harassment & employment attorney Natalie Weatherford talks about a case she worked on involving a man who was a pedophile and was known for sexually harassing and abusing other employees at work. She explains that I specialize in handling numerous cases of workplace sexual harassment, which can be particularly devastating. Enduring sexual harassment or assault is already challenging, but experiencing it in the workplace, the very environment where one goes to earn a living, exacerbates the harm inflicted upon a person. Our firm handles cases involving not only verbal harassment, explicit images, and hostile work environments, but also instances of sexual assault in which individuals have been physically touched or assaulted by their employers at their place of work.
One case that left a lasting impression on me involved a legal battle against the City of Long Beach Parks and Recreation Department. They employed an individual who was clearly a pedophile. He would hire younger boys, typically aged 17 to 19, and engage in what is known as quid pro quo harassment.
The perpetrator, a pedophile, would offer these young boys extra wages on their timecards in exchange for being able to observe their genitals or witness them engage in sexual acts, all within the workplace and during working hours. The most significant challenge in that particular case was attributing responsibility not only to the individual perpetrator but also to the employer as a whole. To achieve this, we had to demonstrate that the employer had received numerous complaints about the perpetrator’s behavior. The city possessed substantial knowledge that the perpetrator had engaged in such conduct in the past and had a generally unfavorable character, yet they failed to take any action. Essentially, they allowed these incidents to occur. Therefore, our task was to uncover all the crucial evidence and establish a comprehensive case against the employer, ensuring that they could not merely dismiss the situation as the actions of a single rogue employee.
