Posted on January 18th, 2008 by Tim Eavenson | No Comments »
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A woman fired from designer sweats giant American Apparel has sued her former boss for sexual harassment. Mary Nelson claims that the head of the clothing company, known for making all of its clothes in downtown LA and paying its employees a living wage, made the workplace uncomfortable with his sexual conversation and attitude. Nothing remarkable there. So why am I tell you about it? From the ABA Journal [citing the LA Times]:
Because he worked as a fit model, and was designing an underwear line, there was a legitimate business reason for him to appear at work meetings in the office and elsewhere wearing only his underwear, contends Dov Charney, the founder and chief executive of American Apparel Inc. Furthermore, lawyers for the casual fashion giant contend in court briefs that the “sexually charged workplace” Charney created was appropriate “where employees of both genders deal with sexual conduct, speech and images as part of their jobs” because of the suggestive marketing routinely used to sell the company’s garments, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Actually, that might not be too far off. If you don’t know American Apparel, just look on the back page of your local, free urban bohemia magazine and you should find one of their bizarre, sexual, amateurish ads for 80′s inspired sweats or gold lamé swim trunks for guys.
Even if trying on underpants was part of your job (it’s gotta be better than document review), sampling the goods in an accounting meeting – especially when you’re the president of the damn company – is probably not the best idea. But then, what do you expect from a guy who says the following in his own defense?
I weigh 155 pounds, I’m five-10. Am I not fit? Is there any job that is not appropriate for me to do? All the big guys did exactly what I do. Versace—they all wore their own bathing suits,” he says, referring to designer Gianni Versace, who was murdered in 1998.
Umm… I have an American Apparel polo. It’s really nice, but Versace may be a stretch.
This isn’t Mr. Charney’s first time at this particular pink-skivvied rodeo: He was sued by multiple women in 2005 for sexual harassment, claiming he asked them to hire women he could have sex with, and exposing himself to employees. Two of those cases have settled, but one is still pending, as of last year.
Posted on December 19th, 2007 by Tim Eavenson | No Comments »
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Daniel Schwartz at Connecticut Employment Law Blog (which graphically puts our fledgling rag to shame) has brought a very important, under reported holiday issue to everyone’s attention – sexual harassment of mall Santa Clauses.
Yep. Apparently, creepy women older girls have been waiting in line to talk to Santa, hoping to raise their rank on the naughty list. From the Hartford Courant (via the post):
A 33-year-old woman who posed for a picture with Santa Claus at Danbury Fair Mall over the weekend wanted more than a photo, police said.
Sandrama Lamy inappropriately touched a 65-year-old worker dressed as Santa on Saturday while sitting on his lap, police said. She is charged with fourth-degree sexual assault and breach of peace, both misdemeanors.
While the post points out that the real Santa is “presumably…an independent contractor,” his buddies that fill in for him in malls may be employees. So? Liability? Schwartz says probably not, because the DOL regs require that the employer know or should have known the harassment was likely. From the post:
I’m just taking a hunch here, but I’m imagining that this kind of harassment of Santa Claus is pretty rare; thus, its unlikely the employer could have foreseen this kind of harassment. (Readers, please let me know if I’m off base here). And now, after the incident has occurred by this customer, the police have arrested the woman, making it unlikely to occur from her again.
For her part, according to an interview with the Danbury News-Times (via Above the Law), Lamy says didn’t do anything wrong. She didn’t even sit on his lap:
“Why would I do this? There were so many people there. If he (Santa) needed a few extra bucks I would have given it to him,” Lamy said. “I’ve never been involved in a crime or anything. This is shocking to me.”
Ok, that’s got to be the quote of the year. Still, what the hell was a 33 year old lady doing in line to see Santa in the first place? You’re asking for trouble is all I’m saying. (And you thought that Wizard of Oz kid with the goggles from a Christmas Story was creepy.)
I took my dog to see Santa at PetSmart last year. That gig’s probably pretty safe. Maybe you get peed on a little, but I’m thinking mall Santas have to worry about that one anyway.
Posted on November 14th, 2007 by Tim Eavenson | No Comments »
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Whew – a somber day followed by a day of dead air – we’re lucky anyone’s still out there. Are you still out there?
Well, we hope so, because CE is returning to its bread and butter today, starting with a cautionary tale coming out of the 1st Circuit that we had to ignore on Monday.
We’ll spoil it for you: if you’re going to write love notes to coworkers, don’t sue when you get fired.
Until now, we’ve always assumed British guys in their 60′s living in the states could do pretty much whatever they wanted. (Girls go crazy for that accent. It’s ridiculous.) Apparently, so did David Bennett. The ex-pat IP lawyer was fired from a corporation in Massachusetts, and he sued for age discrimination, among other things.
The problem was, he was fired for allegedly penning a series of anonymous, sexually-tinged love poems to a coworker. Though he denied writing the poems, he was ultimately implicated because many of the spellings and words were in the King’s English, and not our west-of-the-atlantic, bastardized hog-talk. We can only assume this was a way of invoking the bright line rule about girls and accents espoused above. Plus, they hired a handwriting expert, which is an area of science we honestly thought was made up for 80′s cop shows and CSI.
The other (read: actual) important thing to remember from the case is that, in the end, it didn’t matter whether Bennett wrote the poems or not. From the ABA Journal:
Whether or not Bennett actually was the author was “largely beside the point,” the panel wrote. “(W)hat counts is whether the decision-maker … believed the plaintiff to be the author and, if so, whether he acted on that belief in deciding to send the plaintiff packing.”
One last thing – when they asked Bennett if he wrote the poems he denied it, and then he said he had never composed a poem in his life. A search of Bennett’s desk revealed a whole collection of other poems in his handwriting. Remind you of anyone? We’ll simply repeat our often-repeated plea: Before you file that lawsuit that will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take years to fully resolve, THINK ABOUT HOW DIRTY YOUR OWN FRIGGING LAUNDRY IS!
Or don’t. This stuff is a boon for us.
