BALTIMORE (Legal Newsline) — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against R.V. Associates Limited, doing business as Windsor Inn, for allegedly subjecting female employees to severe and pervasive sexual harassment.
According to the EEOC lawsuit, a restaurant owner raped a female employee and, on a separate occasion, forced her to perform oral sex on him in his office–a place where he kept a handgun displayed on his desk. The owner and management also allegedly knew that other employees harassed the female employee, yet they did nothing to stop it.
The owner inappropriately touched other female employees and made sexual requests and explicit sexual comments to female employees, according to the EEOC. When one female employee refused his demands, the EEOC alleges the owner suspended her.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits such behavior. The EEOC attempted to reach a pre-litigation settlement but failed. The commission filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland Baltimore Division.
“All employees, female and male, have the right to earn a living without being subjected to blatant physical and verbal harassment,” said EEOC regional attorney Debra M. Lawrence. “Preventing workplace harassment is an enforcement priority for the commission."