On May 6, 2013, New Jersey (NJ) and Pennsylvania (PA) employment attorneys Swartz Swidler, LLC, on behalf of a former female employee of Tosoh Bioscience, LLC filed a federal lawsuit in Philadelphia asserting that the employee was subjected to severe sexual harasment and fired for complaining of same, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act. (“PHRA”).
Specifically the employee, who worked for the company for more than a decade, claims that in her 8th year of employment, her direct supervisor began “regularly asking [her] sexually inappropriate and harassing questions and making sexually inappropriate and harassing comments towards [her].” The Complaint asserts that such comments included asking whether she was wearing underwear, whether she was shaved, and other sexually harassing comments. The employee further contends that her supervisor watching pornography in the office and asked her whether she would perform the sexual acts which were shown in the pornographic videos.
After requesting the behavior stop by addressing her concerns with her supervisor directly, the employee claims that she contacted human resources and complained of the sexual harassment which she was experiencing in the workplace. The Complaint asserts that human resources failed to remedy the harassment and instead informed the employee that the conduct she was being subjected to did not constitute sexual harassment and that the best manner to fix same was just for her to inform her supervisor that his conduct made her uncomfortable. Shortly thereafter, the company contended that the employee had performance issues, and fired her.
The Complaint alleges that performance issues were pretextual. The employee contends that she was wrongfully terminated for complaining of sexual harassment.
The employee is represented by Swartz Swidler, LLC, a law firm composed of New Jersey (NJ) and Pennsylvania (PA) employment attorneys who predominantly represent employees in wrongful termination, discrimination, and wage and hour disputes.
