Lights Out: $370K Settlement Ends EEOC Suit Against Hotel Operators in Harassment Case

Working at this hotel was a nightmare for these female housekeepers.

GIPHX10, LLC, and Jaffer, Inc., Edmonton, Canada-based companies that operated as Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham until November 2021, have agreed to pay $370,000 to two female former house­keeping employees and to provide other relief to resolve a sexual harassment lawsuit initiated by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced Wednesday.

According to the EEOC’s suit, the owners permitted the male maintenance/housekeeping manager to sexually harass two female housekeepers at the hotel, located near the Seattle-Tacoma airport in Kent, Washington. The abuse, the EEOC said, included groping the women when they were alone cleaning hotel rooms, mocking them for objecting to the assaults, making sexually explicit comments to them and repeatedly threatening one worker with rape. This caused one woman to quit out of fear for her safety.

After one of the housekeepers reported the harassment to the general manager with the help of a bilingual co-worker, GIPHX10, LLC, and Jaffer, Inc., failed to conduct a thorough investigation and simply accepted the manager’s denial of the allegations. The EEOC claimed that the general manager then retaliated against the housekeeper by cutting her work hours and denying her an hourly raise given to other housekeepers.

Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit to obtain relief for the two female housekeepers in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process (EEOC v. GIPHX10, LLC d/b/a Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham, Case No. 2:20-cv-01369). Both workers intervened in the EEOC’s suit, filed additional state law claims, and Jaffer, Inc., was joined by the court as a necessary party on June 3, 2021.

Under the three-year consent decree settling the suit, GIPHX10, LLC and Jaffer, Inc., will pay $370,000 to the two workers. The decree also requires that both companies retain an independent consultant to help them develop policies and procedures to recognize, prevent and correct sexual harassment and retaliation, including an internal complaint system. They also agree to implement companywide training, with investigation training for managers and the owners with an active role in managing the hotels, and policies to ensure accountability with regard to anti-discrimination practices. The EEOC will monitor the workplace for the duration of the decree to ensure compliance, if either or both companies resume hotel operations in Washington state.

“We have seen the risk of workplace harassment increase when there is a large power difference, when the targeted employee can be isolated, and when employees have limited English proficiency, as noted in the EEOC’s Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace,” said EEOC San Francisco District Director Nancy Sienko. “Employers should ensure that workers receive information regarding harassment policies in a manner and language they understand, which in this case would have been in Spanish.”

EEOC Senior Trial Attorney Carmen Flores added, “While these two hotel owners are based in Canada, any company doing business in the United States must comply with our federal EEO laws. We hope this settlement sends a clear message that defending vulnerable workers and preventing and remedying harassment in the workplace remain top priorities for the Commission.”

The EEOC’s Seattle Field Office has jurisdiction over Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. More information is available at www.eeoc.gov; specifically, information about sexual harassment can be found at https://www.eeoc.gov/sexual-harassment

EEOC: Mandatory Prayer Sessions Violated Law

Forcing your employees to pray is apt to backfire.

North Carolina-based company Aurora Renovations and Developments, LLC, doing business as Aurora Pro Services, a residential home service and repair company, violated federal law when it required employees to participate in religious prayer sessions as a condition of employment and retaliated against employees who opposed the unlawful practice, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, since at least June 2020, the company required all employees to attend daily employer-led Christian prayer meetings. The meetings were conducted by the company owner and included Bible readings, Christian devotionals, and solicitation of prayer requests from employees. Aurora’s owner took roll before some of the meetings and reprimanded employees who did not attend. When a construction manager asked to be excused from the prayer portion of the meetings in the fall of 2020, the defendant company refused to accommodate the employee’s religious beliefs (atheist), cut his pay, and fired him. A few months later, in January 2021, Aurora terminated a customer service representative who stopped attending the prayer meetings because the meetings conflicted with her religious beliefs (agnostic).

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits religious discrimination, harassment, and retaliation in the workplace. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court, Middle District of North Carolina (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Aurora Renovations ad Developments, LLC, d/b/a Aurora Pro Services, Civil Action No.: 1:22-cv-00490) after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its voluntary conciliation process. The EEOC seeks monetary relief for the two employees, including com­pensatory and punitive damages. The EEOC also seeks injunctive relief against the company to end any ongoing discrimination based on religion and to take steps to prevent such unlawful conduct in the future.

“Federal law protects employees from having to choose between their sincerely held religious beliefs and their jobs,” said Melinda C. Dugas, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District. “Employers who sponsor prayer meetings in the workplace have a legal obligation to accommodate employees whose personal religious or spiritual views conflict with the company’s practice.”

For more information on religious discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/religious-discrimination.

The EEOC’s Charlotte District is charged with enforcing federal employment discrimination laws in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

X Marks the Spot: EEOC Adds Nonbinary Gender Marker Option to Intake Process for Charge Filing

EEOC charge filers now have a third option when choosing a gender on the intake form.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced Monday full implementation of the opportunity to select a nonbinary “X” gender marker during the intake process for filing a charge of discrimination.

“By adding a nonbinary gender marker option to the EEOC’s charge intake process, the EEOC is delivering on a public commitment that we made on Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31) and promoting greater inclusion for members of the LGBTQI+ community,” said EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows. “During Pride Month, it is especially important to make clear that in advancing the EEOC’s mission to prevent and remedy employment discrimination, we must serve all workers, including those who do not identify as exclusively male or female. Our public-facing charge forms now make clear that we respect that diversity.”

Consistent with the growing recognition that presenting only “male” and “female” options does not reflect the full range of gender identities, the EEOC has added an option to select a nonbinary “X” gender marker during two critical stages of the intake and charge filing process:

• The EEOC has updated the voluntary demographic questions relating to gender in the online public portal that members of the public use to submit inquiries about filing a charge of discrimination, as well as the Online Spanish Initial Consultation Form and Pre-Charge Inquiry Form that are sometimes used in lieu of the portal.
• The EEOC has also modified its charge of discrimination form to include “Mx.” in the list of prefix options.
   

“The EEOC embraces the diversity of the American public, including LGBTQI+ workers,” said EEOC Vice Chair Jocelyn Samuels. “The EEOC’s procedures are open to everyone, regardless of their gender identity, who believes that they have been subject to discrimination in the workplace.”

Full implementation of these changes comes during Pride Month, as the EEOC works to celebrate the LGBTQI+ community.

To find out more about LGBTQI+ discrimination, visit https://www.eeoc.gov/sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-sogi-discrimination.

Ohio Steelmaker Fined $315K in Worker’s Death

This employer didn’t go far enough in fixing a safety lapse–and it cost an employee his life.

A workplace safety investigation into a 65-year-old worker’s fatal crushing injuries at TimkenSteel in Canton found the company failed to install guards or provide proper hand tools to prevent workers from entanglement hazards while operating a bar straightener machine.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined that the worker was operating the machine on Dec. 27, 2021, at the steel mill’s Gambrinus facility, when he was caught on a piece of steel bar stock rotating at a high speed, resulting in fatal injuries. Inspectors also found the company provided employees with hooks to manipulate the spinning steel bar stock that were not long enough and required the operator’s hands to be present in the machine’s danger zone while guiding the steel bar stock into the straightener.

OSHA learned that Timken Steel previously modified similar machinery by adding a mechanical feed roll unit that eliminated the need for workers to touch the rotating bar stock but canceled a plan to modify the machine involved in the fatal incident.

The agency cited TimkenSteel for two willful and two serious violations and has proposed penalties of $315,952. OSHA has cited the company for safety failures three times in the past five years, and has now placed in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program.

“A worker’s life might have been spared if TimkenSteel safeguarded dangerous machinery as required by law,” said OSHA Area Director Howard Eberts in Cleveland. “This company identified the safety issue that exposed workers using this machine to serious hazards but failed to make it safe.”

OSHA issued two serious violations for a lack of guarding on horizontal drive shafts and knuckles and walking-working surfaces that exposed workers to slip and fall hazards from oil coolant leaks and spills.

Founded in 1917 as the steel business of The Timken Roller Bearing Company, TimkenSteel is a leading producer of carbon steel, alloy and micro-alloy steel in specialty bars, mechanical tubing and other products used in the automotive, industrial and energy markets. The company employs 1,800 workers.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

OSHA Cites Contractor, Proposes $247K Penalty for Its Evasion of Fall Hazards at State Facility

This contractor willfully snubbed the safety rules, the government charged.

Despite the dangers of falls – a leading cause of construction industry deaths – a Strasburg framing contractor ignored federal workplace standards and exposed workers to falls as high as 14 feet while working at a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation facility.

An inspection by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration began on Dec. 19, 2021, in response to a complaint alleging Level Edge Construction LLC exposed employees to fall hazards at the PennDOT salt storage stockpile. OSHA cited the company for two willful and five serious violations.

The citations relate to the company’s failures to protect workers from falls as they performed carpentry work from elevated surfaces, to expose workers to falling or flying objects by not providing required eye, face and head protection, and for not training workers on scaffold-related hazards.

OSHA has proposed penalties of $247,269.

“Level Edge Construction’s disregard for required and well-known fall protection measures places its workers at risk for serious and fatal injuries,” said OSHA Area Director Mary Reynolds in Wilkes-Barre. “Falls are the leading cause of fatality in construction, and employers must take these hazards seriously.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports falls accounted for 351 of the 1,008 construction fatalities recorded in 2020. Learn more about OSHA’s efforts to provide workers and employers information on fall protection.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Level Edge Construction LLC provides timber framing, commercial and municipal construction, and general contractor services.

OSHA Dings Recycler $311K for Safety Lapses

Recycling is good, doing it without compromising worker safety even better.

Federal workplace safety inspectors determined that an Atlanta recycling company exposed workers to hazardous chemicals without warning them of the risks. This is the third time since 2019 that the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the company for similar violations.

An OSHA inspection in December 2021 found that TAV Holdings Inc. failed to provide workers the safety data sheets for all chemicals used in the Atlanta facility and did not list the chemicals in the company’s hazard communication program. Earlier in 2021, the agency issued citations for similar violations at the company’s Greenville, South Carolina, site and in 2019 at the Atlanta facility.

OSHA proposed $311,934 in penalties after identifying three repeat and 28 serious safety and health violations in its most recent investigation. TAV Holdings failed to:

• Install a fall protection system around unprotected sides of a pit.
• Keep exit routes unobstructed, and post signs along obscured exits to show the correct routes.
• Specify techniques to isolate energy sources on machines within the energy control procedures.
• Train employees on hazardous energy sources for equipment.
• Provide guarding on rotating parts and ingoing nip and pinch points on a drill press and conveyer.
• Mark electrical panel circuits to indicate their purpose and enclose an electrical control panel.
• Provide audiometric testing or annual training on hazards associated with high noise levels, and provide hearing protection to some employees.
• Conduct annual training on the use of respirators and fit tests for employees.

“TAV Holdings Inc.’s repeated disregard for workers’ safety is inexcusable, especially after our previous investigations identified the serious risks involved,” said OSHA Area Office Director Jeffery Stawowy in Atlanta-West. “They have a legal obligation to provide their employees with a safe and healthful workplace.”

During the Atlanta on-site visit, OSHA inspectors also found that Atlanta’s XL MachineWorks LLC – a metal fabrication contractor employed at TAV Holdings – failed to train its employees on how to safely operate forklifts and properly anchor a bench grinder. The contractor also failed to guard a lathe machine and improperly used extension cords to power equipment. For these four serious violations, the agency proposed $11,188 in penalties to XL MachineWorks.

The current investigation was initiated after receiving a referral from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The companies have 15 business days from receipt of their citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Visit OSHA’s website for information on developing a workplace safety and health program. Employers can also contact the agency for information about OSHA’s compliance assistance resources and for free help on complying with OSHA standards.

Jury Hits Employer With $650K Award for Retaliating Against Employee Reporting Injury

Firing an employee because they report a safety violation backfired on this employer in a big way.

A federal jury in the District of Massachusetts has found that a Massachusetts employer and his company retaliated against an employee who reported an on-the-job injury. The jury awarded $650,000 in damages – $600,000 in punitive damages and $50,000 in compensatory damages – as a result.

The verdict stems from the U.S. Department of Labor lawsuit filed against Tara Construction Inc. and its chief executive officer, Pedro Pirez, in February 2019 following a whistleblower investigation by the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The lawsuit alleged that defendants initiated a law enforcement investigation and facilitated the employee’s detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the employee reported a serious injury and caused OSHA to open a rapid response investigation.

“The Department of Labor will not tolerate retaliation against employees who complain of workplace abuses, including when an employer seeks to use an employee’s perceived immigration status as a way to intimidate workers. Successful enforcement of worker protection laws depends on workers being empowered and feeling safe enough to speak out for themselves and their fellow workers. If workers are brave enough to come forward, we will use all legal tools we have to protect them,” said Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda.

“The Occupational Safety and Health Act protects the rights of all workers, and – as we did here – we will pursue significant punitive damages when necessary to punish and deter those who violate workers’ rights,” said Regional Solicitor of Labor Maia Fisher in Boston. “In this case, the jury assessed $200,000 in punitive damages against defendant Tara Construction and $400,000 in punitive damages against defendant Pedro Pirez. We seek and obtain punitive damages under the laws we enforce to ensure employers understand that it is not only unlawful, but also costly, to retaliate.”  

“The Occupational Safety and Health Act prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who exercise their rights under the Act, regardless of the employees’ immigration status. This includes reporting injuries and causing an investigation or any proceeding under or related to the Act. This verdict sends a strong message to employers that there will be severe consequences when they violate the law and employee rights,” said OSHA Regional Administrator Galen Blanton in Boston.

OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of 25 statutes protecting employees who report violations of various airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, motor vehicle safety, healthcare reform, nuclear, pipeline, public transportation agency, railroad, maritime, and securities laws. For more information on whistleblower protections, visit OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Programs webpage.

Under the OSH Act, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to help ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.

EEOC Sues Staffing Co. for National Origin Bias

Overzealousness in getting a job applicant to prove their U.S. citizenship is a bad idea.

ResourceMFG, a national manufacturing specialty staffing company, violated federal law when it failed to refer an Oklahoma job applicant for employment because she was not born in the United States, the U.S. Equal Employment Oppor­tunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a recently filed lawsuit.

According to the EEOC’s suit, Anke Hicks, a German-born naturalized U.S. citizen, interviewed with a ResourceMFG recruiter in February 2020 and was offered a position at XPO Logistics, a federal government contractor, that required U.S. citizenship. ResourceMFG told Hicks that in order to complete the hiring process, she was required to present a United States birth certificate. Hicks explained that she did not have a U.S. birth certificate, but she could provide documents proving her U.S. citizenship. ResourceMFG terminated the onboarding process and told Hicks she could not be hired because she was not born in the United States, the EEOC said.

National origin discrimination – which occurs when an employer treats applicants or employees unfavorably because they are from a particular country or part of the world, or because of their ethnicity or accent – violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Employbridge of Dallas, Inc. d/b/a ResourceMFG, Civil Action No. CIV-22-499-C) after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement via its conciliation pro­cess. The EEOC seeks back pay, compensatory, and punitive damages for Hicks, as well as injunctive relief to prevent future discrimina­tion.

“Citizenship requirements are permitted only where required by law, regulation, or government contract,” said Andrea G. Baran, regional attorney for the EEOC’s St. Louis District office. “But staffing companies providing workers to government contractors cannot add additional requirements, such as U.S. birth, to their selection process.”

David Davis, acting director of the EEOC’s St. Louis District office, added, “As a nation of immigrants, we embrace those who choose to go through the strenuous process to become U.S. citizens. Title VII prohibits discrimination against those individuals because they were born elsewhere.”

For more information on national origin discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/national-origin-discrimination.

The EEOC’s St. Louis District office oversees Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and a portion of southern Illinois.

Food Maker Hit With $368K Fine Following Worker’s Death From Fall From Scissor Lift

Keeping us fed shouldn’t come at the cost of workers’ lives. Here it evidently did.

A U.S. Department of Labor investigation into the fatal fall of a contractor at a Robbinsville frozen food manufacturer identified a wide range of potentially fatal workplace hazards at CJ TMI Manufacturing America LLC, leading the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue the employer citations for 36 violations and propose $368,513 in penalties.

A contractor suffered fatal injuries in December 2021 when they fell 11 feet while using a scissor lift to replace a freezer drain. OSHA’s investigation found a damaged and inoperable snap hook on the lift’s safety chain and that the company did not inspect the lift before work began.

“CJ TMI Manufacturing America LLC could have prevented this tragedy had it followed proper safety precautions,” said OSHA Area Director Paula Dixon-Roderick in Marlton, New Jersey. “The company must address and correct a substantial number of hazardous conditions identified during our inspection so that nobody else has to risk their life.”

OSHA also found the company exposed workers to:

• Amputations and lacerations from unguarded or inadequately guarded machinery.
• Explosion hazards from accumulations of combustible flour dust on equipment, floors and surfaces throughout the plant.
• Confined space hazards when entering a wastewater pit to service a water meter.
• Hexavalent chromium hazards during welding operations.
• Chemical burns from caustic chemicals due to inaccessible decontamination showers and eyewash stations.
• Being struck by forklifts operated by untrained employees.
• Numerous electric shock hazards.

View the citations. OSHA has placed the company in the agency’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program.

CJ TMI manufactures frozen dumpling, wontons and noodles for the Twin Marquis and Chef One brands.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Visit OSHA’s website for information on developing a workplace safety and health program. Employers can also contact the agency for information about OSHA’s compliance assistance resources and for free help on complying with OSHA standards.

OSHA Announces $11.7M Grant Safety Program

There’s money behind the government’s efforts to ramp up workplace safety training.

The U.S. Department of Labor last Friday announced a funding opportunity for $11.7 million in Susan Harwood Training Grants to support the delivery of training and education to help workers and employers identify and prevent workplace safety and health hazards.

Administered by the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the grants will target disadvantaged, underserved, low-income, and other hard-to-reach, at-risk workers and employers. The grants are available to non-profit organizations, including community-based, faith-based, grassroots organizations, employer associations, labor unions, joint labor/management associations, Indian tribes, and public/state colleges and universities.

Applicants may apply in the following categories:

• Targeted Topic Training: Support educational programs that identify and prevent workplace hazards and require applicants to conduct training on OSHA-designated workplace safety and health hazards.
• Training and Educational Materials Development: Support the development of quality classroom-ready training and educational materials that identify and prevent workplace hazards.
• Capacity Building: Allow organizations to develop a new training program to assess needs and formulate a plan for moving forward to a full-scale safety and health education program, expanding their capacity to provide occupational safety and health training, education, and related assistance to workers and employers.

Submit applications no later than 11:59 p.m. EDT on Aug. 1, 2022. Applicants must register with www.grants.gov and the System of Award Management to apply.

The grants honor the legacy and work of Dr. Susan Harwood who, during in her 17 years with OSHA, developed workplace safety guidelines for benzene, formaldehyde, bloodborne pathogens and lead in the construction industry. Harwood was also primary author of OSHA’s cotton dust standard which virtually eliminated byssinosis – a lung disease that causes asthma-like symptoms – among textile workers.

Learn more about OSHA.