Hostile Work Environment - Less than 15 employees

[WaterboyMikey]

I live in Texas and my wife works for an insurance agent that has said sexually explicit things to her for some time now. He has made reference to how nice her breasts look in her dress, made comments about his genitalia, asked her for explicit pictures of herself, offered her money to see her breasts, admitted to the office that he received oral sex from a previous employee, told her that she was next to be in his bed, told her to wear something nice for him and said "you know how I like you". Most of these were done through text message, which I still have. This is an office with only 3 employees and they all discuss personal things with each other and everyone is really close in that aspect, which is understandable. She has thick skin and isn't easily offended, so she laughed it off in most cases. Once I found out about it, it caused a lot of strain in our marriage and put her in an uncomfortable position to ask him to stop. She informed him that his actions were going to cause her to get divorced if he continued to act this way. I even emailed him asking him to stop and he replied that he understood where I was coming from and that he would be strictly professional from now on. He just told me this to shut me up because he continued to do it the very next day. She hid it from me because for the first time in her life she was making really good money and worked in a place where she had the freedom to take off work whenever she wanted and she didn't want to jeopardize her job and be know around the office as the snitch. Once I found out that he had not stopped, I told her that she had to find work elsewhere if she wanted to save her marriage because I wouldn't tolerate it any longer. She emailed him a resignation later claiming that she was quitting immediately due to a hostile work environment. She never heard from him again. We agreed to not pursue a lawsuit to avoid any public exposure since we live in a small town and her boss is also the Mayor of this town. The problem is that she was denied unemployment benefits and now a lawsuit may be the only way to cover the lost wages. I am curious what her options are since there are less than 15 employees? Or since he is an agent for a large insurance company, does she count as an employee of the insurance agency itself even though she is on his payroll?

 

[Taxing Matters]

Because the employer has less than 15 employees the federal laws regarding discrimination by employers against employees does do not apply. Texas employment discrimination laws also apply only to employers with at least 15 employees. As a result it does not appear that her employer violated any laws here despite the clearly unprofessional, rude and degrading behavior of her employer. Assuming the agent is an independent agent (i.e. her boss owned his own insurance business was not an employee of any insurance company) then she was not an employee of any insurance company either and thus there would be no claim against the insurance company here.

 

[Chyvan]

The problem is that she was denied unemployment benefits

Did you appeal? WHY was she denied?

 

[Taxing Matters]

WHY was she denied?

My guess is that she resigned rather than being fired.

 

[Chyvan]

My guess is that she resigned rather than being fired.

With those text messages? She stood a pretty good chance at getting UI even for resigning. The WHY is about the rationale for the decision. What factor(s) or evidence may have been missing that resulted in no UI.

 

[gryndor]

Sounds like she wasn't having much of a problem at all, could handle the unprofessional behavior in her environment, and enjoyed her job. Merely because YOU flipped out and gave her an ultimatum (of the entire marriage, no less), you're now in a financial bind. If my husband did this to me, I would be pissed.

I suggest therapy for your rampant jealousy issues.