On August 23, 2006, the New York and Boston offices of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) brought this lawsuit against American Industrial Sales Corp. in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York. The complaint was brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, alleging that the corporation had engaged in sex discrimination against an individual complainant employee and a class of similarly situated women. The EEOC sought injunctive and monetary relief.

Specifically, EEOC alleged that the company's owner, President, and Vice President had engaged in sexually harassing conduct, including inappropriate and unwanted touching, sexual advances, and demands for sexual favors, all of which had created a hostile work environment. When individual employees complained about these actions, they were terminated.

For the following year the parties engaged in discovery. In September 2007, Judge Jonathan W. Feldman referred the case to mediation.

On May 13, 2008, the court entered a consent decree. This decree required the defendants to adopt anti-discrimination policies, train their employees to adhere to the policies, report to the EEOC regarding discrimination complaints, and pay the plaintiffs $ 375,000 in monetary damages. The court maintained jurisdiction over the decree for three years.

This case is now closed.

Justin Kanter - 05/28/2008
Sean Whetstone - 05/21/2018


compress summary