When you have encountered sexual harassment or discrimination in a New York City workplace, you have many options. You may have a basis for pursuing justice using federal, state, city law... or all of them. You also have the right to pursue your case on your own, but that almost always leads to results ranging from sub-optimal to catastrophic. Choosing instead to retain an experienced New York sexual harassment lawyer can help you ensure you are holding the wrongdoers fully accountable and getting everything you deserve.
A recent case from the fashion industry illustrates the differences between city/state law and federal law.
The alleged victim’s alleged experiences were, while shocking, sadly far from unique. She started her new job as a junior accountant with a luxury fashion company on December 5, 2022. By December 7, the senior accountant who was training her began yelling “porn star” at her while she worked at her desk, according to the lawsuit. On December 9, as the junior accountant and a female colleague discussed the upcoming company holiday party, the senior accountant approached and allegedly made a sexual “motorboating” gesture near the junior accountant’s breasts.
The woman filed an HR complaint, and the employer’s chief financial officer offered the woman a transfer with a choice of two departments. Unfortunately for the junior accountant, the CFO resigned just days later, and the transfer never came to fruition. The senior accountant allegedly continued harassing the woman, including unwanted touching.
Less than six weeks after she started, the junior accountant resigned.
The accountant’s federal lawsuit alleged a hostile work environment and sexual harassment in violation of federal (Title VII), state (New York State Human Rights Law), and city (New York City Human Rights Law) law.
The judge handling the case concluded that the misconduct the junior accountant alleged did not rise to the level of an actionable hostile work environment under federal law. Under Title VII, you have to show that the harmful conduct you endured was so bad that your “workplace was permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult” that was so “severe or pervasive” that it altered the conditions of your employment.
The court concluded that being called a porn star over three days (which the perpetrator ceased after the employer’s HR team intervened) and having a supervisor “pretend to motorboat her” once, while “reprehensible,” were not so “continuous and concerted” as to “have altered the conditions of her working environment.”
The court also determined that the misconduct was not sufficiently severe to trigger Title VII. The judge explained that to trigger the statute, isolated actions must be “extraordinarily severe,” including things like being raped, being maced in the eyes, getting punched in the ribs, or “covered with shaving cream while... racially offensive comments” are hurled.
As the judge pointed out, the NYSHRL and the NYCHRL have lower standards. Specifically, a victim alleging a hostile work environment or discrimination “need only show... that she is treated less well because of” her membership in a protected group. The court noted that the NYSHRL and the NYCHRL have lenient pleading standards, requiring courts to “construe liberally” discrimination laws.
New York City, and more recently, New York State, have made it clear that a discrimination or harassment victim need not demonstrate that they endured pervasive or severe harm. Generally, if the mistreatment you endured resulted in you being treated less well and was anything more than “petty slights” or “trivial inconveniences,” it is potentially actionable in New York.
If you believe that the conduct you have endured at work crosses the line into sexual harassment or discrimination, you owe it to yourself to take action. The dedicated New York sexual harassment attorneys at Phillips & Associates are here to explain your rights, answer your questions, and walk you through how we can help you get justice. Contact us online or at (833) 529-3476 to set up a free and confidential consultation.