Property owner treated female workers as objects for ‘sexual gratification,’ feds say
.jpg "A New York property owner sexually harassed female employees at work, the EEOC said.")
The former owner of a group of property companies treated women working under him as objects “for his sexual gratification in the workplace,” according to federal officials who filed a lawsuit on the women’s behalf.
The demeaning behavior — which included sexual remarks about female workers’ bodies, putting his hand down his pants and touching himself when speaking with them and showing pornography on his cell phone — became so intolerable that multiple women resigned from Kingston Properties in New York, a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says.
The owner also habitually lost his temper on the women, according to an amended complaint filed in court. He’s accused of yelling at them, calling them expletives and throwing objects at them when angry.
Although the women objected and complained about his behavior, the harassment continued, according to the EEOC.
Now, Kingston Properties, which is in charge of five affordable housing complexes in Kingston, is paying $240,000 to five former employees to settle the lawsuit, the EEOC announced in a March 2 news release.
McClatchy News contacted attorneys for the defendants for comment and didn’t receive a response.
“Employees have a right to work in an environment free of sexual harassment,” EEOC New York Regional Attorney Jeffrey Burstein said in a statement. “It is well past the day when employers can allow managers to engage in this type of conduct in the workplace.”
Over the course of the lawsuit, which was filed in July 2019, a new owner bought Kingston Properties, the EEOC said.
As part of the settlement’s consent decree, the new owner will not let the former owner manage the company’s buildings or work with employees, according to the agency.
More on the case
Among the women who endured the former property owner’s sexual harassment, at least two worked as bookkeepers and resigned on Dec. 14, 2018, according to the complaint. One other former employee who resigned worked in Kingston Properties’ accounting department.
Some of the comments he directed toward the female employees included how he said he “knows how to satisfy a woman” and “likes the way [women] taste,” the complaint says.
In addition, he told one woman her body reminds him of his wife and stated “he felt like a kid in a candy store” after seeing another woman bend over, according to the EEOC.
One female employee was repeatedly subjected to seeing pornography on his phone, the complaint says.
“We are glad that the employees working at these companies no longer need to fear the kind of harassment that led to this lawsuit,” EEOC New York Acting District Director Tim Riera said in a statement.
The former property owner’s behavior toward the female workers violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the EEOC said.
Kingston is about 100 miles north of New York City.
This story was originally published March 7, 2023 at 8:33 AM with the headline "Property owner treated female workers as objects for ‘sexual gratification,’ feds say."
.jpg)