A woman who had filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Teamsters Local 150 in California, and had rejected a pretrial settlement, has been left with no damages after trial.  The jury found that Teamsters Secretary-Treasurer Jim Tobin did engage in unwanted harassing conduct towardt the employee, Lisa Beauchamp.  However, because the alleged harassing conduct occurred before the statute of limitations deadline, Beauchamp is not entitled to any damages.

The lawsuit had alleged that Tobin created a sexually hostile workplace.   So called "office girls" were often required to sit on his lap, and he often made inappropriate sexual comments and even physical contact directed at the plaintiff.

Tobin and his attorney did offer a pretrial settlement, which Beauchamp rejected.  According to a juror, there were photographs of Tobin with women from the office that did suggest that his behavior contributed to a sexually hostile workplace.  However, because the conduct occurred before the statute of limitations deadline, Beauchamp was not eligible for any compensation.

The 11 woman, one-man jury, however, failed to reach a decision about whether Teamsters Local 150 was liable for the harassment.  A mistrial was declared on that aspect of the case.

Unless a victim moves quickly to file a complaint of sexual harassment, a California sexual harassment lawyer may not be able to help.  Under California's law, a victim must file a complaint of sexual harassment with the government before filing a civil lawsuit.  These procedures can be extremely complex and it is critical that you meet all deadlines and statutes of limitations or, as in this case, you may lose your ability to recover compensation for your damages.

The federal government has begun an investigation into an alleged hostile sexual environment at Yale University.  Officers from the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, have begun an investigation into complaints by students that the elite university in Connecticut has become a sexually hostile environment.

A group of 16 men and women at the university have filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, alleging that Yale had failed to take any action to respond to instances of sexual harassment on the campus.  The allegations are more serious than the kind that California sexual harassment lawyers typically come across.  The complaint is alleging that the university looks the other way when faced with allegations of sex crimes against students on campus.  According to the plaintiffs, Yale has not ever expelled a student for rape.  

Prominent alumni of the university are coming out now to add to the students complaints.  According to noted author Naomi Wolf, the lawsuit by the university students barely scratches the surface of what is really going on at Yale.  According to Wolf, for a long time now, Yale has been engaged in a systematic cover-up of sex crimes against students.  While the university has a formal grievance procedure through which complaints are processed, it actually provides very little support to the victims.  To the students, it may seem like the university is providing a sympathetic ear, but in reality, the victims claim, the university is only looking out for its own interests.  It does this by isolating victims, and protecting the university.

For Yale, there is much at stake here.  The university is eligible for federal funding, but if investigations reveal gender discrimination, then it would impact the $500 million in funds that Yale is eligible to receive from the federal government.

It’s no secret to California workplace discrimination lawyers that the barriers between the genders are falling it comes to discrimination and harassment in the workplace.  Even just a decade ago, it would've been relatively rare to have a man filing a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment in the workplace.  These lawsuits are actually on the rise.  According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the number of sexual harassment claims filed by men, doubled between 1990 and 2009.

However, it's not just sexual harassment lawsuits filed by men that are on the increase.  More numbers of men are coming forward to claim that they were passed over for promotions and other advancements in the workplace when their employers gave preference to women.  A workplace discrimination lawsuit filed this week by a man employed by comedian Jimmy Fallon, is an example of this.  The man, Paul Tarascio, a stagehand at NBC, claims that he lost his job because Fallon preferred a woman over him. 

Such incidences are becoming more and more common.  According to the EEOC, the number of male employees coming in to file complaints about preferential treatment for women is also on the increase.  Men seem to particularly complain about being passed over for certain jobs in favor of women, or not being able to land certain kinds of jobs, like secretarial jobs.

There is a range of discriminating practices in the workplace if these complaints are any indication.  For instance, more men are coming in to complain about getting lesser time off from work in order to care for a sick family member or child.  Men, who complain about harassment or any other form of discrimination in the workplace, also don't seem to have too many willing ears to listen to them.  A common complaint seems to be that harassment or discrimination complaints made by men in the workplace don't seem to be taken seriously by employers in the way that complaints filed by women are.