she said i hit her

[mamma mia]

What is the name of your state? california

i am a pharmaceutical rep who a year ago had a manager claim in a field coaching report that i hit her while we were in the car together. prior to this our district of 11 representatives were all having professional and incompetency issues with this african american woman and had been in close contact with her manager as well as human resources. she ended up going out on disability for the last year and is now returning. my company wants to put her back in my car which i feel is a huge liability. she also lied on another rep's report and we feel she is capable of anything. she also harrassed me (clothes, where i placed food at a luncheon i did, that directions i gave her were not good enough, etc) i feel she creates a hostile environment for me and do not want to be alone with her in a car. when she was managing me she also used to ask me to do things that were not allowed by the fda such as copy reports from the internet and pass them out to my physicians saying no one would find out. this woman is trouble and my company says that it is in my job description to ride with her. how can i keep her out of my car? do i have any rights to file a hostile work environment suit against my company? Help!

 

[cbg]

A "hostile working environment" is one of the most misunderstood concepts in employment law. Contrary to what many people appear to believe, it does NOT mean that a co-worker or manager is unfriendly, antagonistic, or even is making your life hell. It means that you are being subjected to either sexual harassment or illegal discrimination.

Although you make reference to her race, there is nothing in your post to suggest that racial discrimination is in force here. Unless you are prepared to show that the ONLY reason she is treating you like this is because of your race, gender, age (over 40), national origin, disability or pregnancy (since you are in CA you can add marital status, sexual orientation and political affiliation to that list) then you do not have a hostile environment in the legal sense and you can neither prevent the company from scheduling her to ride with you nor file a suit against the company.

 

[mamma mia]

can i go after the company for libel or defamation of character since she wrote this lie in a field coaching report that is now in my employment file? i have copies of the report with my comments attached. she wrote this in the report and submitted it to me 6 days after our ride along and never mentioned it to her boss (my regional director) or our human resources department. the first either of these parties heard of the alleged incident was from me. when i let HR dept know that i was concerned that it was a part of my file she kept telling me "don't worry about it" but i always have because it contains false accusations.

 

[cbg]

No. Putting a negative review in your employment file does not come even remotely close to a case for defamation.