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11th Circuit Sends Sexual Harassment Claim for Offensive Radio Program at Work to Jury
Posted by: Melville Johnson, P.C.
May 15, 2008
Topic: Employment Discrimination
The Attorneys at Melville Johnson, P.C. can provide this type of employment law representation for you:
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleven Circuit , located in Atlanta, Georgia, overruled a district court decision to dismiss an Alabama Plaintiff's sexual harassment lawsuit on grounds that offensive language and behavior was not aimed directly at the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff, who worked at the C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. Birmingham, Alabama office, complained that she was subjected to sexually offensive language that permeated the work environment on a daily basis. The Plaintiff, who was the only female employee in her work area, was subjected to the sexually offensive language on a radio program that was played in her work environment from the Summer of 2001 until the Spring of 2004, when she resigned, since the daily exposure to the offensive language continued, even after she had complained to her co-workers and supervisor on several occasions.
The Eleven Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Plaintiff's claim of sexual harassment, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, met the requirements for a discrimination complaint, because the subject matter of her complaint, the offensive language, was based on gender and severe and pervasive. The Plaintiff's sexual harassment attorney originally filed the complaint in February 2006, and after the U.S. District Court Judge dismissed suit, the sexual harassment attorney filed a federal civil appeal with the Eleven Circuit Court of Appeals. The attorneys at Melville Johnson, P.C. specifically represent clients in sexual harassment claims in EEOC charges, district court suits, federal civil appeals, and appeals at the U.S. Supreme Court for private employees, in addition to their federal employment law practice for federal employees. The Appeals court specifically cited Walker v. Ford Motor Co. in ruling that even though the court has "never explicitly held that such 'sex specific' language satisfies the 'based on' element in a sexual harassment hostile work environment case even when the language does not target the plaintiff, [it does] so today in light of [its] race-discrimination cases." The court went on to hold that "[i]t is well established that racially offensive language need not be targeted at the plaintiff in order to support a Title VII hostile work environment claim," therefore the court concluded that the offensive gender based language did not need to be targeted at the plaintiff.
This article is largely based on a Associated Press article written by Walter Putnam on April 30, 2008.
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