Recently in Sexual Harassment / Workplace Harassment Category

Berryhill Baja Grill, the establishments of a local businessman, Philip Wattel, were sued for sexual harassment against bartenders, reports The Job Mouse.

The suit has been brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in federal court in Houston.

The case focuses on accusations Kimberly Kulig and Laura Baatz have made against Philip Wattel, the owner of two Berryhill Baja Grill restaurants, and span the period from 2006 to 2008.

After a Galena Park police officer, Corrie Long, filed a gender discrimination case with the EEOC against her former boss, the police chief, that boss filed a defamation suit against her, reports KPRC.

The chief, Robert Pruett, along with two other officers, are suing Corrie Long after she filed a claim with the EEOC in which she claimed that they made her resign from the force by threatening to release topless photos of her to the media, reports Courthouse News Service.

A waitress at a Waffle House in Texas sued for damages against her employer for improper supervision in a sexual harassment lawsuit, but ultimately lost her case when the Texas Supreme Court refused to create a new sexual harassment cause of action, reports Employer Brief.

At the current time, an individual's authority to file a sexual harassment claim comes from federal law and state law. The federal law that covers sexual harassment in the workplace is Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The state law that covers sexual harassment is Chapter 21 of the Texas Labor Code.

A female employe of Pioneer Hi-Bred of Amarillo, Texas, has alleged sexual harassment against the company, reports Employer Brief.

The woman, Kathy Ray Grimaldi, is suing under the authority of the federal Civil Rights Act. She alleges that she was ""made to feel as second class to the other employees specifically males and non-Hispanics." The complaint alleges that a supervisor told Kathy Ray Grimaldi that "she did not need a breast exam...he would do it for her" and "that she needed to have sex to relieve stress."

The rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual workers have been in the spotlight lately, with the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" in the military and the Harvard University study that showed that there was a bias against gay resumes, as reported by FindLaw's Houston Employment Blog.

As a way to reduce discrimination against LGBT people, 126 corporations have banded together and organized a summit in Texas, to be held from October 25-28. The aim will be to advance workplace equality. Up to 2,500 attendees are expected. Some of the major corporations attending will include Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Northrop Grumman.

At a Dallas warehouse belonging to the shipping company DHL, Hispanic employees were subject to such derogatory names as "wetback", "beaner", "stupid Mexican", and other equally disturbing epithets, reports the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's website.

The EEOC, which has brought suit against DHL Global for harassing and intimidating its Hispanic employees, added that various employees were given severe admonition for using the Spanish language.

Jamie Leigh Jones, the woman who lost the gang-rape case against her employer, a former subsidiary of Halliburton's, is now being asked to pay for all the legal fees stemming from her lawsuit, reports Legal Newsline.

Jamie Leigh Jones's case was decided in July, when the federal jury ruled that she was not raped in Iraq while employed by Kellogg, Brown and Root, reported FindLaw's Houston Employment Law Blog.

She claims she was treated like a piece of meat.

A 17-year-old girl from Collin County has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), reports the Southeast Texas Record.

Blanca Rodriguez was only seventeen when she started working at the KFC. She alleges that she was immediately subjected to verbal and sexual harassment by a co-worker. She tried to speak to a restaurant manager with her father's help, but no appropriate action was taken.

The Port Arthur Holiday Inn Park Central isn't in the news because its the "hotel motel holiday inn" from "Rapper's Delight" by Sugarhill Gang, but because a pair of terminated employees have filed a suit alleging that they were terminated by the hotel after complaining about sexual harassment, reports the Southeast Texas Record.

The suit involves a brother and sister that worked at the Holiday Inn Park Central, named Marie Brown and Wesley Devereaux. Brown started working for the Holiday Inn Park Central as a cook in 2009, only to be immediately subjected to sexual harassment by another cook. Although the hotel fired the sexual harasser, Brown alleges that she was also let go as a result of the complaint.

A 53-year-old woman who came to the United States in 1981 and is a U.S. citizen, as well as a mother of two and married for twenty two years, had been working at a K-Bob's Steakhouse in Texas as a busser and salad bar attendant from 1999 to 2010.

During the last three years of her employment, reports Courthouse News Service on a complaint filed in the Western District of Texas, the plaintiff Maria Guzman was raped repeatedly, first by a supervisor named Reyes Padron then assaulted by a colleague Jose Avalos, as a condition of her employment.