E-Newsletter

June 2011

How Can You Save Your Company $10.6 Million This Year?

Deborah A. Krukowski, Esq.

How can you save your company $10.6 Million this year? Make sure you've conducted your annual harassment and retaliation training!

A fired UBS employee recently was awarded over $10 million dollars due, in part, to the Company not properly training its supervisors regarding harassment and retaliation. The employee's lawyer is also seeking future lost pay and attorneys' fees to be added to the verdict.

Carla Ingraham worked for UBS Financial until she complained of harassment and then was terminated 6 months later. Ingraham filed a lawsuit against UBS and a jury found in her favor awarding her $10 million in punitive damages, $350,000 for sexual harassment and $242,000 for retaliation.

Ingraham stated in her Complaint that her supervisor repeatedly made inappropriate comments to her, called her his "work wife," invited her (but not her husband) to a client's lake house, and called her into his office to view offensive e-mails on his computer. He also asked her about her fantasies, she said in the lawsuit.

"I was at a point in my life where I could finally take a stand and say no and say stop and I did this not just for me, but for all the women who came before me and hopefully the women who are there now and who are there after me, that will have the right. It's the law to work in an environment free of [harassment], of a hostile environment," said Ingraham.

She also claimed that the Company retaliated after she reported the harassment. This included cutting her compensation, accusing her of drinking on the job, and prohibiting her from bringing her camera to work despite there being no company policy against it, according to the Complaint.

The verdict is "a wonderful vindication of the jury system," Ingraham's lawyer said after the trial this month. The Company "said the claims were baseless, but then they issued all these letters of reprimand" against men at the company who worked at Ingraham's office, he said.

What to learn from this case: train your supervisors often and well, so that you not only avoid potential harassment from occurring, but also so that your management knows what to do when you receive a complaint of harassment. Don't be caught issuing letters of reprimand after the fact -- especially when they can, and will, be used against you. It's much easier to prevent, than to try to clean up the mess afterward.

The case is Ingraham v. UBS Financial Services, Inc., 0916-CV-36471, Circuit Court, Jackson County, Missouri (Kansas City).

If you have any questions regarding this or any other employment or labor law matter, contact Krukowski & Costello, S.C.'s educational services department at (414) 988-8400.