Okoli v. City of Baltimore
Plaintiff Collins, an African American woman who formerly worked for the Baltimore Commission on Aging and Retirement, will soon be presenting her claim of sexual harassment, abusive behavior, and retaliation against her boss, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th District and before a jury. Collins was hired by a Baltimore agency as an executive assistant in 2004, and she was almost immediately confronted with inappropriate conduct by her boss, who propositioned her for sex, asked her personal questions, physically and improperly touched her, and showered her with undesired gifts. Collins repeatedly rebuked his advances, expressed her discomfort with his behavior, and even complained to Baltimore officials—all to no avail.
She also asked to be transferred and twice reported the harassment to the Baltimore Community Relations Commission, the mayor, and the mayor’s chief of staff, but no action was taken. However, after a sending a formal complaint to the mayor on April 1, 2005, Collins was fired the same day by the agency director for her typographical errors and trivial disagreements about meeting times. While the federal district court judge ruled against Collins, holding that the gifts she had been given were “innocent enough” and that she had reported only a few cases of misconduct, the appellate court ruled that Collin’s boss’s behavior was indeed sufficiently severe and pervasive to constitute a hostile work environment theory of sexual harassment. That court also found the fact that she was terminated on the same day that she complained to be anything but coincidental and sent her case back to the district court to be decided.
The Issues: Sexual Harassment AND Racial Discrimination?
Like the appellate court, the district court should find on remand that the behavior exuded by Collins’s employer qualified as sexual harassment. Repeated inappropriate sexual behavior creates a hostile work environment. A hostile work environment claim can be successful if the harassment suffered by the employee was severe and pervasive to the extent of unreasonably interfering with the victim’s job performance. The district court should find that the boss’s behavior was severe and pervasive as viewed from both a subjective and objective perspective since Collins clearly perceived it as such, as demonstrated by her several refusals and complaints, and a reasonable person under similar circumstances would agree.
The fact that the cited article makes note of both the plaintiff and defendant’s race may serve to suggest that Collins’s employer also engaged in racial discrimination. There are two primary federal laws in the United States which concern race discrimination: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The former pertains to employers who have at least fifteen employees working for them, and proscribes discrimination against numerous types of race-based characteristics and affiliations. Employers are forbidden from taking part in either disparate-treatment or disparate-impact discrimination.
Disparate-treatment discrimination occurs when a person is singled out on account of a protected class, including race, while disparate-impact discrimination occurs when a neutral practice has a substantial and harmful impact on a protected group and is not significantly related to the job. Collins is African American, and her boss is Caucasian, therefore, if the boss indeed discriminated against Collins in either of the above mentioned manners, Collins should consult an attorney, such as a sexual harassment lawyer in Orange County, to discuss her options.
There is Still Hope For Collins
It is both unfortunate and unbelievable that Collins’s complaints went unaddressed for so long. It is equally as mind-boggling that the federal district court did not find the boss’s behavior to be sufficiently actionable under a hostile work environment theory. However, the fact that Collins was faced with so many obstacles in her quest for justice likely will resonate well with the jury, and she will hopefully receive a fair and just trial this time around. Anyone who finds his or her complaints of sexual harassment continuing to fall upon deaf ears should definitely seek the assistance of a sexual harassment lawyer in Orange County. The lawyers at Diefer Law Group are highly qualified and can assist you in filing a successful claim.