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BetterWorks Faces Sexual Harassment and Physical Assault Suit

Former BetterWorks Systems Inc. employee Beatrice Kim is suing the company and three executives for sexual harassment, physical assault and a work environment that’s hostile to women.

According to Bloomberg, Kim’s complaint describes BetterWorks Chief Executive Officer Kris Duggan making inappropriate motions toward her on a bed during a company retreat in October and said an internal investigation concluded that he hadn’t violated the company’s harassment policies. The allegations echo those lobbed against other startups and venture capital firms recently as Silicon Valley grapples with pervasive cultural problems, particularly rampant sexism.

The suit follows a wave of allegations about the technology industry’s hostility toward women. Investigations into past human-resources complaints at Uber Technologies Inc. resulted in the firings of more than 20 employees this year and the ouster last month of Travis Kalanick, who was running the company during those scandals. Sexual harassment allegations against venture capitalists, including 500 Startups’ Dave McClure, Binary Capital’s Justin Caldbeck and Ignition Partners’ Frank Artale, led to their departures in recent weeks.

MetLife to Pay $32.5M in Race Bias Class Action Settlement

A U.S. District Court has given the final approval to a $32.5 million settlement of a racial discrimination case against MetLife filed by African-American former MetLife financial services representatives.

As mentioned in Insurance Business, the former employees filed the case against the insurer in 2015. They accused the firm of maintaining “a racially biased corporate culture and stereotypical views about the skills, abilities, and potential of African Americans that affect personnel,” a court docket said.

Marcus Creighton, the chief plaintiff, said MetLife denied him advancement opportunities, even though he was a “successful, experienced FSR and well-qualified to join management,” the document added.

The terms order that $7.15 million of the settlement will be paid to class counsel Stowell & Friedman, while the remaining $25.35 million will go to the class members.

MetLife denied and continues to deny all of the allegations and claims asserted, according to the settlement agreement.

Roswell Park Cancer Institute Accused of Racial Discrimination

Two employees have filed a lawsuit  this week in U.S. District Court against Roswell Park Cancer Institute alleging racial discrimination. One of the employees alleges the cancer center retaliated against her for reporting events she claimed posed a danger to a patient.

According to Buffalo News, officials at Roswell Park said they had not been served a formal summons and complaint from the two employees as of Friday. But they said their cases had been investigated by the cancer center’s director of diversity and inclusion, and no evidence of racial discrimination by the institute or its staff was found.

“Roswell Park treats its employees fairly and respectfully and our diversity and inclusion record is strong,” the cancer center responded in a statement.

Xantipple Conerly, a call center specialist, who is black, alleges that her supervisor discouraged her from writing up white employees she supervised but routinely directed her to issue written discipline to black employees. Conerly also alleges that she was more frequently instructed to monitor black employees for time and attendance issues and to listen to black employee’s calls to ensure that they were “using the correct verbiage.”

NFL Films Sued for Sexual Harassment by Former Employee

Former NFL Films employee Nadia Axakowsky has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit in federal court in Camden, NJ. In the lawsuit Axakowsky alleges she was sexually harassed by several supervisors at NFL Films, over nearly 20 years as a voiceover announcer.

Axakowsky says she started at NFL Films in 1997 and the harassment began almost immediately. She said she was subjected to regular unwelcome sexual conduct and comments.

As mentioned in NJ, one supervising producer would ask Axakowsky out for dates and when she refused, he said she would lose her job if she did not eventually accept. Her next supervisor continued sexually harassing her for the remaining 13 years of her employment with NFL Films while working on the “Billboard Girl” program. She said the next producer, Glenn Adamo, groped her on numerous occasions, the suit alleges.

The lawsuit states Axakowsky seeks damages to redress the injuries she suffered “as a result of being discriminated against, sexually harassed, retaliated against by her employer solely due to her sex and for complaining of the ongoing harassment.”

McDonald’s Sued by Trans Employee for Sexual Harassment and Discrimination

A former McDonald’s employee is suing the company and the franchise owner for “extreme sexual harassment” and discrimination on the job.

As mentioned in The Huffington Post, La’Ray Reed worked at the franchise full-time between April and August 2015. La’Ray says she was referred to as a “boy-slash-girl” and relegated to using an unused bathroom that had been serving as a storage closet because she is transgender. She also claims her genitals were groped.

“I am transgender, but I have never dealt with anything like that, especially in the work field,” Reed said in a video released Thursday by the workers’ rights group Fight for $15, which is locked in a legal battle with McDonald’s to improve employee pay and conditions. She added that her hours were slashed, and she was eventually fired, after speaking to a manager about the abuse. “They actually took me off the schedule,” she said in the video clip. “So with that being said, it was even more stressful, even more depressing.”

Binary Capital Accused of Harassment by a Former Employee

Former employee, Ann Lai is suing Binary Capital LLC for harassing and defaming her after she resigned from the firm. Lai was a principal at San Francisco-based Binary specializing in data and analytics until May 2016. The allegations surfaced shortly after the company’s co-founder and chief executive, Travis Kalanick resigned last week.

In the lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of California in San Mateo County, Lai claims co-founder Justin Caldbeck texted her repeatedly after she left the firm, threatening her not to disparage or divulge information about the company and threatening to ruin her career, Bloomberg reports.

Lai left Binary because of its “sexist and sexual environment,” including inappropriate conduct with female staff at company outings, a female-specific dress code and statements about the attractiveness of Lai and other women such as startup founders, according to the lawsuit.

In the complaint, Lai said Caldbeck began pressuring her after she left the firm, after she had complained about the behavior and tried to keep her from talking about her experience at the firm. The lawsuit argues that Binary’s actions caused Lai economic and emotional harm. She is seeking civil penalties, attorneys’ fees and costs, economic and general damages.

 

Panda Express to Pay $600,000 In Federal Worker Discrimination Lawsuit

Panda Restaurant Group, Inc. has reached a $600,000 agreement with the federal government after being accused of discriminating against workers who weren’t American citizens.

According to USA Today, the Chinese food chain required its employees who were legal permanent residents of the U.S. to reestablish their work authorization when their documents expired even though they didn’t ask the same of their staffers who are citizens, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The business also required non-citizens to show their immigration documents to verify again that they could work even though they’d already done so previously.

Under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, employers aren’t allowed to ask for workers for these kinds of documents when it’s based on their citizenship status or national origin.

Panda Express will have to pay $400,000 to the federal government, and create a $200,000 fund to provide back pay to affected workers. The company said it never intended to discriminate.

‘Golden Girls’ Cafe Owner Accused of Sexual Harassment

Owner of the Golden Girls themed cafe has been accused of sexually harassing his former assistant. The cafe owner, Michael J. La Rue was a close friend of the late actress Rue McClanahan, who played the bawdy southern belle Devereaux on the popular TV series.

His former personal assistant Henry Campbell began working for Michael J. LaRue and his upper Manhattan eatery Rue LaRue Cafe in October 2016.

As mentioned in the New York Post, the suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, says that LaRue “would discuss his preferred sexual preferences with [Campbell], and inform him how he was ‘in demand’ because he was a ‘top.’”

When Campbell complained to his boss about the behavior, LaRue retaliated by firing him in January, the suit says.

University of Maryland Employees File a Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

Michael Bell and DuRay Jones filed a lawsuit against the University of Maryland alleging they were discriminated against because of their race. The men are each seeking $1.5 million, according to the lawsuit.

The employees said the university fostered a hostile working environment, retaliated when they complained about misconduct and inflicted emotional distress.

As mentioned in The Baltimore Sun, the lawsuit alleges that university management treated Bell and Jones differently than their white counterparts. The university’s actions caused “depression, humiliation and loss of daily enjoyment of life,” according to the lawsuit. Christal Edwards, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said their lawsuit is just the latest symptom of a culture of racism on the College Park campus.

Abraham Goodwin alleged the university “continues to retaliate against me for exercising my rights to complain about racial discrimination that took place and continues to take place in the work place,” according to court documents.

Goodwin settled with the university, Edwards said.

 

College of DuPage Settles Wrongful Termination Lawsuit

Two former College of DuPage administrators have settled their wrongful termination lawsuits against the school, ending a protracted legal battle that began after they were wrongfully terminated in retaliation.

Thomas Glaser and Lynn Sapyta sued the college, former COD board Chairwoman Kathy Hamilton and former interim President Joseph Collins after they were fired in September 2015 for opposing Hamilton’s political agenda.

According to Chicago Tribune, terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but college officials said neither the school nor its insurance carrier would pay any money as part of the deal with former Treasurer Thomas Glaser and former Controller Lynn Sapyta.

“The College is pleased that this litigation has ended,” the school said in a statement released after the vote. “The result is clearly in the best interests of the College.”