Thursday, October 30, 2008

Hotel Chain to Pay $370K to Settle Same-Sex Harassment Lawsuit Filed by EEOC.

Last week, the EEOC announced that a hotel employer had agreed in a consent decree to settle a same sex-harassment lawsuit filed in federal court in Seattle, Washington, by, among other things, paying $370,000 (to be divided among the four-teenaged victims), providing anti-discrimination training for managers, supervisors and employees at the hotel resort, establishing policies and procedures to address sexual harassment issue, reporting any future discrimination complaints to the EEOC and allowing the EEOC to monitor the work site for the next three years. In its lawsuit, the EEOC alleged that the employer had failed to stop the male hotel manager from sexually harassing teenaged male employees when he “repeatedly subjected young male employees between the ages of 17 and 25 to unwelcome touching of a sexual nature, comments about their physical appearance, and sexually charged situations.”



The defendant was “WorldMark by Wyndham (formerly Trendwest) [which] employs several thousand individuals and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Parsippany, N.J.-based Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:WYN), the world’s largest hotel franchisor, vacation ownership company and vacation exchange network, which includes chains like Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Ramada Inn, Howard Johnson, and others.”



Insomniacs can read the full EEOC press-release at http://www.eeoc.gov/press/10-23-08a.html.


NOTICE: This summary is designed merely to inform and alert you of recent legal developments. It does not constitute legal advice and does not apply to any particular situation because different facts could lead to different results. Information here can change or be amended without notice. Readers should not act upon this information without legal advice. If you have any questions about anything you have read, you should consult with or retain an employment attorney.