Call center bosses pressured women for sex. Company must pay victims

A company that owns call centers in Fresno and Clovis has settled a federal lawsuit alleging male bosses routinely pressured women for sex, leered at them, looked down their blouses and pinched their behinds.

Alorica Inc. must put $3.5 million into a fund to compensate employees whose claims of sexual harassment are approved by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

At least 44 Alorica employees who worked in the Fresno and Clovis offices have shown they were victims of sexual harassment, and more victims are expected to come forward now that the company and the EEOC reached a consent decree settlement approved Monday by District Court Judge Lawrence O’Neill in Fresno, the EEOC said.

The EEOC enforces federal laws against sexual harassment in the workplace.

“Every worker has the right to work without the fear of being subjected to sexual harassment, propositioned, innuendos, assault and touching,” Christine Park-Gonzales, deputy district director of the Los Angeles district, said at a news conference Wednesday.

“We are hopeful today’s announcement will encourage other employers to make positive changes in their workplaces to prevent discrimination and harassment,” she said.

Two female Alorica employees from Fresno and Clovis filed workplace sexual harassment complaints.

Supervisors, managers and co-workers engaged in “verbal, visual and physical harassment,” Park-Gonzales said.

“Female workers were openly propositioned for sex, leered at and touched,” she said.

An investigation revealed that a manager peered down women’s tops to see their breasts, she said. A team manager asked a female employee to perform oral sex, she said. Those who complained to the EEOC were subjected to unwanted touching of their breasts, thighs and buttocks, she said.

Those who complained were terminated, Park-Gonzales said.

Men were also harassed, she said. Female employees talked about sex in front of male co-workers, and men were asked what sexual position they liked.

The Irvine-based company is minority owned and employs 100,000 people at call centers around the world, according to the company. The two call centers in Fresno and Clovis employ hundreds of people.

Whistleblower Linda Strong, 27, of Fresno, worked at the Fresno call center from November 2013 to June 2015 as a customer service representative and as a team leader, when she quit to get away from a boss who sexually harassed her multiple times, she said.

She called the EEOC, which started an investigation and sued the company, leading to a consent decree announced Wednesday.

Her boss told her that he had a large penis and bragged about sexual exploits. “When he slept with women, they would call him daddy,” she told reporters.

“He would comment on my breasts, he would ask me what kind of bra that I wore,” she said. “He would tell other employees that he liked my breasts. He would also, in one-on-one meetings, pull me close to him, he would rub on my back and try to give me massages on my shoulders and whisper in my ear, things like “I needed that’ and ‘good job.’ ”

She asked for a day off so she could move. “He told me no, and that I should stay at his house and ‘have fun,’ ” she said.

She said the company has a reputation as a place where women were sexually harassed.

Two other team managers also sexually harassed her, she said.

She complained to a supervisor, she said. The human resources department put her on a two-week leave.

“When I returned, the entire facility knew that I was involved in a sexual harassment complaint and they also knew specific details of the complaint,” she said.

She moved her work desk to another area, but the assistant director and his friends would come by her desk, she said. “They would grab me, roll their eyes, walk by multiple times,” she said.

She complained to the site director.

“He told me he didn’t want to hear anything incriminating about his associate directors because they performed for him,” she said.

She said she was afraid to complain because she didn’t want to lose her job. “But the sexual harassment had just gone way too far and I was fed up with it,” she said. A pamphlet for employees she was given at work had the EEOC contact information, so she called the number, she said.

“I just want everyone to know that if you have been sexually harassed at work, whether it’s one time or ongoing, it’s not your fault, you didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. “You don’t have to suffer in silence like I did. All you have to do is come forward and make a complaint.”

Chasity La Mattina, of Fresno, who worked at the Fresno office for one year, said a boss pinched her bottom and made inappropriate gestures.

“It is humiliating to be looked at as a piece of meat,” she said.

For three years, the company must follow the terms of consent decree and most of the terms must be followed nationwide.

It must hire a third-party monitor, add staff that works on equal employment opportunities in the company, provide sexual harassment training for employees including civility and bystander interference, and revise its anti-discrimination and retaliation policies.

Alorica said in a statement it disputes that allegation of sexual harassment but chose to go along with the consent decree rather than get tied up in litigation.

Company lawyer Tania King said Alorica fired several managers and employees.

The company will do right by the employees, she said.

“We are committed to a respectful workplace for all of them,” she said. “Harassment, discrimination and retaliation has no place at Alorica.”

This story was originally published August 1, 2018 at 5:34 PM.