Here is the latest issue of “This & That” Tuesday. I hope you find it to be informative and useful.

 

Announcements

You can always check out my website for upcoming speaking engagements that are guaranteed to be of value to business owners. More details about the events and Human Resources 4U can be found on my website.

 

 

Employee Handbook Updates 2013: There have been significant changes to CA employment laws in the past two years. If you haven’t updated your Employee Handbook recently and you are interested in having me update your employee handbook, please contact me.

 

New Jersey Pays Millions to Settle Sex Harassment Cases

Soon after joining New Jersey's corrections officer academy, Gina Marie DiPasquale was taken aback by what she saw as blatant harassment of female trainees. DiPasquale, an instructor at the Sea Girt academy, complained to her superiors about sexually offensive cadences used in training, verbal obscenities, inappropriate touching of female trainees by male instructors and other issues, according to court documents.

 

As a result, she was called a "psycho-b—" and "snitch" by co-workers. She was also subject to on-the-job retaliation, sex and gender discrimination, sexual harassment and a hostile work environment, according to court documents. Fed up, she filed suit against the state in 2005 and resigned. Last year, she agreed to accept $415,000 from the state to settle the case.

 

The Open Government Advocacy Project found that:

• State employees filed 913 sexual harassment complaints with state agencies from 2006 through Sept. 12, according to New Jersey Civil Service Commission data. The number of complaints has been fairly steady, ranging from 125 in 2006 to 168 in 2008 to 137 last year. Seventy-eight complaints were filed this year, as of Sept. 12. Overall, a third of the complaints have been deemed valid by the state. 
• State employees who sued alleging sexual harassment reached 27 settlements totaling $3.9 million in taxpayer dollars from 2006 until late June 2012, according state and court records. 
• Most of the settlements, ironically, involved alleged harassment by employees of agencies entrusted to enforce the laws. They include the state Department of Law and Public Safety, which includes the State Police and Juvenile Justice Commission. The department had four settlements totaling $1 million — No. 1 in terms of dollars.

Other agencies included the state Department of Corrections, the state courts, including the Office of Attorney Ethics and Juvenile Intensive Supervision Program, NJ Transit and the state departments of human services and transportation. For these agencies, settlements averaged about $145,000 apiece. Nine were for at least $200,000.

 

One of the Garden State's best-known sexual harassment cases involved Garabed "Chuck" Haytaian, the former state Assembly speaker and state GOP chairman who retired from state politics in 2001. A female legislative staffer sued Haytaian and the state in 1996, alleging that he kissed and fondled her several times in 1994 and 1995. Haytaian vigorously denied the allegations and the state eventually reached a settlement that paid the staffer $175,000. The state also picked up the nearly $170,000 legal tab to defend Haytaian.

 

Several years ago, Monmouth County secretly settled a sexual harassment complaint from a county traffic engineer for $470,000. The state Supreme Court ordered the county to unveil the settlement after the Asbury Park Press and a citizen sued to make it public.

 

A former transit agency electrician (Oliver Carcano) alleged that he was the victim of relentless sexual and racial harassment from 2000 to 2007, when he was forced to resign. Colleagues often made crude comments such as: "I hear you are a psycho" followed by an unprintable sexual comment and "You look like you have AIDS." Rampant graffiti on bathroom walls, stalls, doors and other spots made sexually explicit statements about him, the lawsuit alleged. NJ Transit did nothing to eliminate the hostile work environment for Carcano.

 

NJ Transit denied Carcano's allegations, saying it had a written policy against sexual harassment and/or discrimination that was enforced. Still, the state settled the lawsuit last year, giving $265,000 to Carcano. Some of the men named in the lawsuit were still working for the agency as of June 30, with several making nearly $100,000 a year or more, according to state records.

 

As sexual harassment complaints within state government have risen by nearly 10 percent since 2006, while the number of allegations across the country have dropped by 5.5 percent according to EEOC.

 

Strange as it seems, all of the state's approximately 74,000 employees are required to take training courses aimed at preventing sexual harassment.

 

Scully Distribution to Pay $630,000 to Settle Class Action Race Discrimination Suit

The EEOC has announced that SDS Fontana Holdings, Inc., which formerly did business as Scully Distribution Services, will pay $630,000 to settle an EEOC lawsuit which alleged widespread harassment and discrimination against a class of African-American, Latino and East Indian workers, mostly truck drivers, in Northern and Southern California.

 

In its lawsuit, the EEOC said that since at least 2003, management officials and employees at Scully referred to black drivers as "n—-rs," East Indian drivers as "Taliban" and "camel jockey," and a Latino manager as "s–c." In addition to the harassment, the EEOC charged that non-white drivers were given less favorable assignments than their counterparts.

 

The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. The EEOC's complaint also identified Miami-based Ryder System as a successor entity by virtue of its 2011 purchase of Scully, but did not assert any direct violations of Title VII against that entity.

 

The EEOC and the defendants ultimately entered into a consent decree, which requires the designation of an EEO monitor to ensure compliance with Title VII and the terms of the decree. The decree also provides for the implementation and continued maintenance of a policy and complaint procedure to address discrimination, harassment and retaliation, as well as extensive annual anti-discrimination training for managers and drivers of the client accounts formerly operated by Scully. The EEOC will monitor compliance and future complaints of discrimination based on race, national origin and religion throughout the duration of the decree.

 

The EEOC stated, "A hostile work environment involving offensive slurs and epithets is not acceptable in any work force, including one mostly comprised of truck drivers. The EEOC is pleased that the parties were able to bring this case to an early resolution that will benefit the former Scully employees who were subjected to this type of hostility based on their race, religion or national origin." "The actions of company managers dictate the culture of an entire workplace. Widespread discrimination and harassment can result from the actions of a few managers who either directly harass minority worker, or knowingly allow others to do so. Employers should be vigilant in ensuring that the message of equal employment opportunity permeates from the top down."

 

Factoids

• 45% of companies say it has been hard to fill some key positions in the past year 
• Workers at not-for-profit organizations can expect 2.6% pay increases in 2013 
• 37% of workers say their boss is not open about his/her own strengths and weaknesses

Long Term Care Insurance factoids

• Only about 8 million out of 300 million people in the US have LTCI 
• Medicare will only cover nursing home care for 100 days 
• One year of care costs about $75,000 ($250,000 in 2042) 
• Each year about 11 million adults need LTC 
• There is a 70% chance that individuals over age 65 will need LTC sometime in their life