Judge rules against IRS in harassment case
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30696 |
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
DECEMBER 2019 NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR
11
© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved
DOI: 10.1002/nba
access to some training, and (4) she was temporarily
removed from the investigation unit.
The city led a motion to dismiss.
The district court judge said a plaintiff claiming
a hostile work environment must allege misconduct
that a reasonable person would consider sufciently
severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of employ-
ment and create an intimidating, hostile or offensive
working environment that wouldn’t have occurred
but for her protected status.
He explained that an evaluation of a hostile work
environment claim required a consideration of
whether the conduct was physically threatening or
humiliating, and unreasonably interfered with the
plaintiff’s work performance.
He explained that severe or pervasive conduct
could be established through numerous incidents that
would be insignicant if considered individually but
were enough to make the work environment intimi-
dating or hostile when considered together.
However, he cautioned that Title VII didn’t provide
a general civility code for conduct in the workplace,
and simple teasing, offhand comments and iso-
lated incidents—unless extremely serious—wouldn’t
amount to discriminatory changes in the terms and
conditions of employment.
The judge assumed for the purpose of argument
that the re captain’s alleged references to “baby
back” and the “rehouse” were negative remarks
based on gender. However, he said there weren’t any
allegations about how many times she was denied
training, or who made the decision about those de-
nials. Moreover, he ruled that the denial of locker
room access was inconsequential, because she had
been given access to another area.
EMPLOYER WINS ➔ The judge ruled that
the two purported statements made by the captain
weren’t enough to state a hostile work environment
claim because they were neither severe nor pervasive.
Turning to the allegations about her military
service, the judge refused to interpret the captain’s
alleged statement about unlimited leave as showing
any bias, explaining that it might have been simply
an opinion that the plaintiff was fortunate.
The judge dismissed the claim, ruling that the rest
of the allegations didn’t reect severe or pervasive
conduct.
[Gross v. City of Jersey City, et al., U.S. District
Court for the District of New Jersey, No. 18-9802,
05/15/2019].
Title VII
Judge rules against IRS in harassment
case
The plaintiff began working for the Internal
Revenue Service in 2017.
According to the plaintiff, a team coordinator
began harassing her almost as soon as she com-
pleted initial training in March. Although the
coordinator wasn’t the plaintiff’s supervisor, he
would purportedly stand close enough to touch
her at the elbow and shoulder and (1) ask if she
had enough work, (2) criticize her completed as-
signments and (3) sometimes order her to stop
working on projects.
According to the plaintiff, the coordinator took
those actions against her and other females.
She also claimed he (1) told her to get back to work
while she was on a break and (2) once clenched his
sts when he told her to quit. She also said he had
once mumbled and stared at her while repeatedly
punching one st into the palm of his other hand.
According to the plaintiff, when she complained
about the conduct, her supervisor said the coordina-
tor was “more important” than she was, and nothing
could be done, even though he had been subject to
prior disciplinary actions.
The plaintiff resigned and led a suit that made
several claims.
One was harassment and a hostile work environ-
ment because of her gender.
The IRS led a motion to dismiss, arguing that
most of the allegations about the coordinator didn’t
indicate they were motivated by gender bias.
EMPLOYEE WINS ➔ However, the district court
judge ruled that the complaint was adequate because
it contained detailed allegations about harassment
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