Monday, July 30, 2012 | 5 p.m.
A case involving unwanted sexual advances at a Las Vegas workplace resulted in a federal judge requiring the company to implement measures to prevent sexual harassment, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Friday.
The company, Prospect Airport Services Inc., had agreed to a settlement worth $75,000 but refused to agree to any terms preventing future harassment, officials said.
The incident happened in 2002 when a male employee at Prospect began receiving sexually suggestive notes from a female co-worker while employed for the company at McCarran International Airport, officials said.
EEOC officials said the male employee’s wife had died the previous year, and he rebuffed the female co-worker’s advances. Her advances over time, however, escalated to the point of her sending him a semi-nude photo of herself, making lewd gestures and recruiting other employees to approach him on her behalf, officials said.
Prospect managers allegedly made light of the situation and failed to stop the harassment, according to the EEOC. The company also did not have a policy addressing the issue.
The male employee ultimately resigned in 2003, officials said.
Because Prospect refused to implement preventive measures, the EEOC petitioned Nevada’s District Court for an injunction, officials said. The EEOC had filed a suit against Prospect in 2005 in Nevada’s District Court regarding the company’s failure to address the male employee’s complaints.
U.S. District Judge Kent J. Dawson granted the EEOC’s request and ordered Prospect to create and implement a sexual harassment policy. Part of that includes mandatory annual sexual harassment training for all supervisory employees, officials said.
Men filed 16 percent of all sexual harassment charges at the EEOC last year, officials from the EEOC’s Las Vegas office said in a statement.
Prospect is a provider of wheelchair assistance services to airline passengers with locations across the country.
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