Debra Lawrence, the EEOC’s regional attorney in Philadelphia, said preventing sexual harassment requires employers to act “promptly and forcefully.”
“All too often, employers instead choose to callously disregard that legal duty and punish workers for reporting harassment,” Lawrence, whose office filed the lawsuit, said in a statement.
The lawsuit is the fourth that the EEOC has filed against Walmart this month and at least the eighth this year, but is the first of those that does not involve disability discrimination claims.
Walmart has denied wrongdoing in the other lawsuits, which include claims that the company required newly-hired workers with disabilities to pass a computer-based test in order to keep their jobs and fired workers with epilepsy and Crohn’s disease.
The EEOC filed Tuesday’s lawsuit on behalf of a class of female workers who were allegedly harassed by the manager. The worker who was fired claimed that at least four other women said they had been sexually harassed, according to the lawsuit.
The commission is seeking an order requiring Walmart to revise its policies on preventing sexual harassment and retaliation, along with backpay and other money damages for the class of women.
