SEXUAL HARASSMENT: NY Grocery Store Manager Settles $1.2 M –Lawsuit

February 22, 2011

Syracuse, New York – A jury in a federal district court has returned a $1,260,080 verdict in a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Paul’s Big M grocery store in Oswego, reports said.

The two-week trial, which started last January 3, favored the EEOC and awarded $1,250,000 in punitive damages, and additional $10,080 to 10 female victims for emotional pain and suffering they endured, including Andrea Bradford, Judith Goodrich, and Deborah Haskins, the three women who brought the harassment to EEOC’s attention.

The EEOC will ask the court for injunctive relief to prevent future discrimination as well.

The lawsuit against KarenKim, Inc. or Paul’s Big M, stated that from 2001, a class of female workers, many of whom were teenagers still in high school at the time, was subjected to sexually hostile work environment by the Oswego store general manager Allen Manwaring.

Manwaring allegedly conducted egregious acts that were sexual in nature, like suggesting a threesome with one teenage cashier’s mother, sticking his tongue in another teenage cashier’s mouth, and grabbing and touching the breasts and buttocks of others.

During the trial, many female employees testified that he also made sexual offers, described his sex life with company owner Karen Connors to whom he was engaged, and made lewd gestures. They cited Manwaring and Connors’ relationship as a reason why the store refused to take action on sexual harassment complaints made against the manager.

In 2008, Manwaring pled guilty to one criminal count of harassment in the second degree after four women made a complaint to the police against him. He was only given a 30-day paid suspension for it but was eventually fired in 2010 for sexually harassing a young woman, although she testified that the company forced her not to reveal the harassment or the reason for Manwaring’s termination.

The EEOC claimed that the company constantly failed to take necessary steps to stop the harassment, despite numerous complaints to management and the police. The agency also said that many female employees were forced to quit due to intolerable working conditions.