In June 2003, the New York District Office of the EEOC filed this lawsuit against Mr. Gold, Inc., doing business as La Piazza, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, alleging discrimination on the basis of sex in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1963. Specifically, the complaint alleged that the defendant discriminated against female employees by permitting a sexually hostile work environment including physical and verbal abuse of female employees, and retaliated against opposition to these practices through unequal treatment and negatively impacting the financial and other working conditions of female employees, culminating in the constructive discharge of some of the complainants. The charging parties intervened in the lawsuit in November 2003. Following some discovery and a settlement conference, the parties settled the lawsuit in November 2004 through a consent decree.

The four-year decree, containing anti-discrimination and retaliation clauses, required the defendant to: report on complaints of harassment and make other compliance reports, post notice of employee rights, provide 3 hours of anti-discrimination training for employees and 5 hours of anti-discrimination training for supervisors and managers, maintain records regarding attendance of training sessions, designate a human resources representative to receive, investigate and resolve complaints of discrimination, and pay $247,500 to be distributed among nine complaining parties and their attorneys. The docket sheet doesn't show any further enforcement took place; the case was presumably closed in 2008.

David Friedman - 01/11/2008
- 06/11/2017


compress summary