| Description: | I, an over 40 female, was employed in a skilled position for 3-1/2 years in MN with a company that was owned by a media company in St Paul, MN. My department was predominately male (I was the only female at the time) and during the time there I was sexually harassed almost from the time I got there. Just as upsetting, I saw younger men with less education/experience and seniority promoted faster and given better raises. (According to the written guidelines employees in my department were to be given a .50/hour raise after 90 days. I got one after 2 years.) Women were only hired part-time (without benefits or 401K, etc.) Women were disparaged often. Despite the fact that I had Master's level education (which only management had), I was often spoken to condescendingly by management.
After 3-1/2 years, I experienced an incident of gender-based harassment which directly interfered with my ability to do my job (an attempt was made by a co-worker using gender specific language to discourage the use of specific tools I needed to do my job). It was already a hostile environment but I could not get around this because I was expected to know how to use and to use this tool.
Everyone there was terrified of retaliation and I was told by a co-worker that it was pointless to complain. Following corporate guidelines, I reported the incident to corporate HR contacts, my supervisor, his supervisor and the local HR contact. From then on NOTHING happened to the offender and I could not get a definitive answer as to what action they took, if any. I made multiple requests for them to document what happened in writing and they refused (even corporate).
I had a meeting with the top exec of the local company who didn't care about sexual harassment (boys will be boys, you know), unsafe working conditions or the fact that I was not making much more than minimum wage after 3-1/2 years of experience there (and a Master's level education). In fact, when this exec understood that I had safety concerns about a specific piece of potentially lethal equipment I told was immediately that I was now required to use it. (My two male predecessors were not made to use this piece of equipment and I had been promoted to full-time even after I refused to use it. Also, it was never mentioned to me that it was a requirement for this position before I was hired. There was also a safer alternative that did the same thing which I offered to use instead but, the exec told me that was not acceptable.)
When we discussed pay issues the exec told me that I had to demonstrate merit. Merit was defined in the local company's written guidelines. And I met these quidelines and even won a competitive award that no one in my title won that year (in my market). However, when my performance review came up just days after this meeting I was written up for all sorts of nonsense. My supervisor, his supervisor and his assistant treated my review as a joke. I was then told my raise would be .25/hour which was "standard" for the company. This was the lowest raise I'd ever had; equal to that of the part-time office staff and only days after I was told that raises were "based on merit". Once again, I complained to corporate HR about my treatment and she said that I sounded "miserable" and gave me an out. I took it because I was afraid of more possible retaliation which included the use of dangerous equipment. (I did, however, file an anonymous complaint with OSHA about it).
I filed a complaint with the MN Human RIghts Dept (on advice of an attorney). As I believed that I was constructively discharged, I also filed with the Unemployment Dept. Of course, my ex supervisor and his supervisors and corporate HR misrepresented a lot of facts to the dept. The corporate HR contact even denied in writing that she knew about the sexual harassment complaint despite the fact that I sent the judge a copy of documentation proving that she did. The judge seemed sympathetic to their side and seemed to understand comments they made without further explanation suggesting prior contact (but, it should be no surprise as the corporate office is a MAJOR, MAJOR political donor--second highest in the state to the GOP at the time).
Possibly related to that was my experience with the MN Human Rights Dept. My intake worker continually sent the paperwork I needed to my former workplace instead of me despite my calling him to complain. I finally had to drive down to their offices to fill out the complaint. I also checked in the EEOC who told me that Human Rights would cross-file the complaint with them (which never happened, by the way). The Human RIghts intake worker then sat on my case for 6 months (even though I reported to him that there was another female employee who had subsequently quit there when she found out a male with no experience was started at more than she made after about four years of working there and asking for a raise). None of this seemed to impress him very much. Finally, six months later, the worker sent a badly-written complaint that was wrong in many details. He wanted me to have it notarized as true which I could not. According to the communication from Human Rights, they requested any corrections but when I tried to request the corrections that needed to be made, my intake worker said he wasn't going to make them. I called the department to ask for a different intake worker but they transferred me back to him. I complained to the head of the department but ultimately got the brush off from them.
I then stopped work with Human Rights to proceed with the EEOC. I found then that Human RIghts had not cross-filed with them. In fact, the intake worker at the EEOC made comments to the effect that, according to her information, I had waited for months after I my separation date to file with Human Rights. I told her this was totally untrue. I had filed right away. I sent it via certified mail and I have proof of the date I sent it. I wondered what other wrong information they had so I sent a 4" binder containing my account and supporting documentation from the company and the agencies I had dealt with so far. The EEOC then sent a complaint to former employer which was brief but alleged Equal Pay and other violations. After a couple of weeks, my EEOC intake worker called back and said they wouldn't take the case as my former employer supplied evidence that "some" male workers made less than I did. When I asked if these male workers were equal to me in seniority, education or demonstrated merit I was told by my intake worker that she couldn't talk about it because it was "confidential". So, the EEOC sent me a "right-to-sue" letter.
By this time I had approached a series of lawyers, none of whom I could afford or wanted my case (I didn't make enough money). Even when I mentioned the Lily Ledbetter act nobody seemed to care. So, after speaking with more legal aid organizations and women's groups, I was left writing my own pro-se which I filed with the federal court.
Just a few days ago, I received an answer from my former employers' attorneys who claim, among other things, that their corporate parent really is not their owner. Well, that's amusing as their name was all over my employee materials and their name was also on the contact list to report sexual harassment and my employee file resides there. (Okkkk.........)
I'm looking for a determined lawyer who has no conflict of interest who can practice in Minnesota. (By the way, I did have a local firm interested in me upon the receipt of my right to sue letter that quickly dropped me once I actually did. In my last conversation with them my prospective attorney only wanted to know if I knew of any ongoing investigation that MN Human RIghts or the EEOC that might be conducted.)
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