Sexual Harassment

[lisasmail]

I have a question and I am from Southern California. I was fired from my job of 3 years after a year of being sexually harassed. I had enough and I was not strong enough to tell my employer in person to stop with the touching and the comments and so forth, so I wrote him a letter and gave it to him on a Friday afternoon. Two weeks later he said my work performance had dropped significantly and he fired me. I filed for unemployment and he denied it. I appealed it and won the case. I took in the evidence of my good work reviews, my continuous raises and commissions and bonuses I received, and I also took in a copy of the letter that I had given to my employer, and the judge said without a doubt, the employer was wrong, and in the appeal decision the administrative law judge declared it sexual harassment for the reason for my termination. My employer had 20 days to appeal the decision and never did. My question is this. I have not filed any type of suit on this matter because it was very hard for me to get over. Now I am financially suffering...I used to make over 50K a year, I just bought a house two months before he fired me, and I am curious if I would have a valid case against him. I am a single mother of 3 boys, and I wanted to keep it quiet because it was so humiliating, but now I think I have to do something about it. Can you please help?

 

[Beth3]

How many employees does this company have? How long ago were you terminated?

 

[lisasmail]

There are 4 employees and 1 president. It is a small company. The company is an internet advertising company so we rarely dealt directly with the public. Only over phone and email. The president is the one who has done this.

 

[lisasmail]

Terminated on April 28, 2005.

 

[Beth3]

Your company is too small to be subject to federal laws that prohibit sexual discrimination/harassment. While CA has their own laws that prohibit sex discrimination, what isn't readily apparent in searching the site is what size employer those laws apply to. What I did easily locate is that (a) you have six months to file a complaint with the State and (b) the agency to contact to do so is Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, Discrimination Complaint Investigation Unit, 2031 Howe Ave., Ste. 100, Sacramento, CA 95825. The phone number is 1-800-884-1684. You need to contact them and inquire whether employers with only 5 employees are subject to CA's discrimination laws.

Lastly, you may want to talk to an attorney regarding civil recourse. If it turns out you can't pursue a claim for sexual harassment due to the size of the company, you may have a civil claim against him for sexual assault.

Good luck.

P.S. It's quite possible that CA discrimination laws apply to all employers regardless of size so don't assume you don't have any recourse just because the federal laws don't apply. I also suggest you shake a leg. You only have six months from the date you were terminated to file a complaint with the State.

 

[lisasmail]

Thank you so much. I will get right on it.