Boca Raton Employment Law Blog

We have discussed the issues of workplace harassment and employment discrimination in a variety of contexts. Essentially, harassment can be a discriminatory practice, and often allegations of harassment can be entwined with employment discrimination. Our Florida readers may not be surprised that the two can be entwined, but the standards under the law are distinct. Employment harassment and discrimination lawyers may often bring separate counts in a lawsuit brought on behalf of a worker who has suffered such unlawful conduct in the workplace.

A recent story from California highlights how allegations can not only cross the lines of the law, but also may cross the lines between legal offenses. A woman who formerly worked for an ITT Technical Institute on the West Coast says that her former boss engaged in egregious conduct in the workplace for many of the six years that she worked for the institution as an admissions counselor.

A jury ruled in favor of seven women and one man in a Florida sexual harassment verdict last week. The seven women claimed that management at a Largo, Florida location of the former Four Amigos Travel. Inc. and Top Dog Travel, Inc. engaged in horrific conduct—sexually harassing women in the workplace. One male worker says that he was fired for complaining of how the women were treated in the workplace.

One of the women, a 66-year-old former worker at the travel outfit, says that the sexual harassment made her physically ill. She says that one manager kept a sexually explicit image of himself on his cellphone, “and he would stick it in one of the employee's faces," according to ABC Action News. At some point, the sexual harassment got so bad, she says that she called the manager a dog. She says that he responded by grinding the back of her chair professing to show her what a dog is.

A prison management company based in Boca Raton, Florida has agreed to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed in the Southwest part of the country. The lawsuit alleged that the Florida-based company allowed management at a prison facility in Arizona to sexually harass female workers. The lawsuit brought on behalf of two women says that supervisors engaged in both physical and verbal harassment, and that the company maintained a high tolerance for the unlawful harassment in the workplace.

One of the women says that her supervisor had forced himself upon her and attempted to forcibly kiss her. A separate manager engaged in repeated verbal harassment--frequently making comments and jokes that were sexually offensive. Federal and state laws generally prohibit such harassment in the workplace. Employers are prohibited from allowing sexual discrimination, including sexual harassment.

A hospital system based in Miami, Florida is accused of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by changing the schedule of a newly hired doctor who has epilepsy in a recently filed employment discrimination lawsuit. Federal law generally requires employers to provide qualified workers with mental or physical disabilities with reasonable accommodations to help the workers perform the duties of the job.

Officials say that a woman applied for a position at a Coral Gables, Florida location to work as a general practitioner. The doctor has epilepsy and notified the employer of that medical condition during her initial interview. She had also requested that her work hours be limited to eight hours each day to accommodate her medical condition. She was successful in making it through the entire interviewing process, including having interviews with other staff members and ultimately she was offered a job.