Employee Files Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Against Florida Nursing Home

A Jacksonville resident has filed a $10 million lawsuit against his former employer amid claims that he was harassed by other employees for being openly gay. The employee says he was repeatedly harassed and then forced to resign after complaining to management. According to the plaintiff he worked at several other outlets owned by the same company and never had an issue with anyone. It was only until he moved to the Jacksonville facility that he was harassed daily. The employee said he reported slurs and other inappropriate comments to HR, but no one ever did anything about it. The three workers who were doing the harassing were female.

Hostile work environment lawsuits 

This case is a classic example of a hostile work environment lawsuit. We typically think of sexual harassment lawsuits file by women against male coworkers. However, male workers can file sexual harassment lawsuits against female perpetrators, it’s just very rare that it ends up working out that way. In this case, we have a hostile work environment lawsuit based on gender discrimination which the Supreme Court only recently ruled includes the LGBTQ community.

For years, federal law did not include gay or transgender employees specifically in the text of the law. While many states intervened to include anti-gay discrimination, many others did not. This left employers free to discriminate against gay employees. That remained true until the Supreme Court decided that gender protections should be applied to gay and trans individuals.

According to the plaintiff, when he complained about the conduct to management, it resulted in retaliation against the employee. The company forced him to resign and even threatened to call the police on him.

Evidence of misconduct 

The victim appears to have solid support from fellow employees who were not involved in the harassment. There are also text messages sent between employees confirming the harassment. In other words, it’s a textbook hostile work environment case complete with several attempts to report the misconduct that went unheeded by HR. In other words, the plaintiff has all his ducks in a row. His lawsuit against the nursing home is seeking a reported $10 million in damages.

For those who litigate employment discrimination cases, it’s a process. You need a timeline of the misconduct to prove that you notified your superiors concerning the misconduct and they failed to do anything about it. In this case, not doing anything about it is enough to file a hostile work environment lawsuit. However, the defendant took it one step further and fired the employee, which is likely enough to get the employee punitive damages.

So, the nursing home really messed up here, and it’s going to cost them a lot of money. Meanwhile, the former employee is enjoying his new job doing the same work for a different company. He says he loves his new environment and everyone has been very respectful.

Talk to a Jacksonville Sexual Harassment Attorney Today 

If you’ve suffered sexual harassment in the workplace, the time to involve an attorney is now. We can guide you through the process of creating a timeline and reporting the misconduct to your managers. If they fail to remedy the situation, we can begin the process of filing suit. Call the Jacksonville sexual harassment lawyers at the Law Offices of Carol Galloway to learn more about how we can help.

Resource:

news4jax.com/news/local/2021/08/20/employee-files-10m-sexual-harassment-suit-against-jacksonville-nursing-home/