Legal Blog: Wal-Mart Slow to Act on Same-Sex Harassment

Wal-Mart has, unsurprisingly, been the target of more lawsuits than one can count over the years. The company’s treatment of its workers and “save money at all costs” mentality has resulted in a flood of legal challenges ranging from single plaintiff suits to multi-million dollar class actions. Dukes v. Wal-Mart is of course one large example (the largest class action in American history, actually), as are the myriad wage/hour/overtime class actions the company faces.

Just as important as those large class actions, however, are the countless suits filed by individual plaintiffs – the tiny David trying to win justice over Wal-Mart’s Goliath. We at Wal-Mart Watch will be focusing on one of these stories each week, highlighting those cases that warrant further attention because of the light each sheds in its own way on how Wal-Mart does business.

Mrs. Magen Davidson-Nadwodny of Baltimore, Maryland never expected she would be yet another victim of sexual harassment at her local Wal-Mart. She was hired on in the Women’s Jewelry Department, in October of 2005. Mrs. Davidson, who was working to support her family and disabled parents, alleges that she was subjected to repeated and continued sexual harassment by her female co-worker. Additionally, she claims that Wal-Mart not only knew about the behavior and did not stop it, but Wal-mart had previously transferred another employee to the shoe department for the same problem.

Mrs. Davidson filed a 49 page complaint on September 26, 2007 in the Circuit Court of Maryland for Baltimore County. She is suing Wal-Mart for Battery, Sexual Harassment / Hostile Work Environment, Harassment, Breach of Implied Employment Contract, Intentional Misrepresentation, Intentional/Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress, Defamation, Invasion of Privacy – Placing a Person in a False Light, Negligent Hiring or Retention, Respondeat Superior, and Retaliation.

(What the heck does Respondeat Superior mean? …basically an employer is responsible for the actions of its employee under the law).

As early as November of the same year Mrs. Davidson was hired, she reports experiencing sexual advances and harassment from her co-worker, an Assistant Department Manager for Jewelry.

To sum up the case…

The harassment behaviors experienced by Mrs. Davidson, often in front of customers, included the harasser:

Staring at Mrs. Davidson’s chest
Glaring at Mrs. Davidson seductively
Passing by Mrs. Davidson behind the counter and putting her hands on Mrs. Davidson’s hips and squeezing them
Passing Mrs. Davidson and brushing across her backside with open hands
Stroking Mrs. Davidson’s hair
Commenting on how it was soft and luscious
Scratching Mrs. Davidson’s back
Tugging at Mrs. Davidson’s bra strap
Inappropriatly touching Ms. Davidson while supposedly looking for scissors.

Mrs. Davidson’s attempts to discontinue the harassment included:

Generally staying away from the harasser, whenever possible
Pulling away and not encouraging the advances
Asking the harasser to stop & letting her know she was not a lesbian
Informing her Assistant Store Manager of the harassment
Requesting a department transfer
Following-up on her request several times
Attempting to speak with the Store Manager about the behavior
Transferring to a cashier’s position
Filing a formal complaint with Maryland’s Department of Human Resources

How did Wal-Mart assist Mrs. Davidson in discontinuing the harassing behavior?

“I’ll get you transferred in about a week or so....” –Assistant Store Manager Loretta

Finally, in April of 2006, almost six months later (“a week or so” apparently translates to anywhere between one and twenty-six weeks), Mrs. Davidson was moved to the position of cashier. Throughout this time Wal-Mart had given the following excuses for their lack of inaction in the matter:

They forgot about it
These things take time
No one in their right mind wants to replace you in Jewelry
We are in a hiring freeze
You have to wait until we hire someone new
Go through the proper chain of command

Wal-Mart transferred Mrs. Davidson to the lower paying cashier position as a result of the harassment inflicted upon her. Mrs. Davidson filed an official complaint with the Maryland Department of Human Resources and suffered additional retaliation for this action. Inevitably, Mrs. Davidson was forced to leave her job at Wal-Mart for health reasons related to her high blood-pressure in the hostile environment.

Read the full details of the complaint here.

Posted by Christina Clark on Friday, July 25, 2008

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COMMENTS

I am still an associate at walmart and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I need the job and can;t quit. I to have been a victim of walmaert. I was sexually harassed my 2 female(same sex assc), The first time had my butt cheeks grabbed and squeezed by a young female , went to a manager and the co-man wanted to know why i did not haul off and hit her, she also told me that if it had been her” she would have broke her arm and that it was a warrent for death. Never did anything, another assc in our dept came forth and said she to was spanked by this same assc and had a witness, They to went to man nothing done. A week later a friend of the one who grabbed my butt followed me into a walk in cooler and spanked me on the butt with a book on front of my bakery manager. I called home office on my cell phone , called the marketing office, they opened a red book investagation. no one fired the first girl quit a bout 3 weeks later Quit (not fired). The second one still there. At the same time of my investagation there was a male assc being investagated for sex harassment against a female and he was fired 3 weeks later. Why is that???? because i was a female touched by a female?? There was also other sexual misconduct involving these 2 females that touched me . The second girl had a lesbian assc from maintenence come into the bakery licking and sucking on her neck on the clock. all this reported to management they are still there , nothing done to them, the lesbian assc still walks around whistleing at females. another produce assc was showing naked pictues of her croch and hoping on cart humping up and down on them and moaning in front of male assc. this was also reported to management. she was never fired but quit a month after the investagation, i went to the store manager and asked him” what was going on with all this, that management never takes care of problems.” He told me “ it was none of my business and if i didnt like it i could use the open door policy and go higher up. and he said they were doing something about it , that he had a stack of papers from this investagation and that it was a waste of his time and a bunch of nonsense” Plus there is so much more in this store it is pathetic, i have filed a complaint with human relations. They did not send the papers as of yet. God i cant stand it and cry every day. For more on this story visit my website.
Thanks for listening
Susan Koury
http://susanhateswalmart.tripod.com/

Susan Koury in mechanicsburg , Pa
Monday, July 28 at 08:18 AM

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