Blockbuster Agrees to Pay $2 Million-plus in Harassment Suit

15 Dec, 2011 By: Chris Tribbey

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Blockbuster has agreed to pay more than $2 million to settle charges of harassment at a Gaithersburg, M.D., distribution center.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, filed a case against Blockbuster accusing the company of subjecting female temp employees to sexual harassment, retaliating against them for resisting sexual advances and complaining, and subjecting Hispanic temp employees to race harassment between 2004 and 2005.

The suit alleged male supervisors engaged in and condoned harassment against seven female employees, four of whom are Hispanic. The EEOC suit alleged harassment incidents that included requests for sexual favors, insults, threats, racial remarks, inappropriate touching and other discriminatory conduct. The conduct resulted in fewer work hours for employees, discriminatory firings and forced resignations, the suit alleged.

Blockbuster filed a bankruptcy petition during the case, which remains pending in U.S. bankruptcy court.

“This case should act as a warning to all employers who use staffing agency personnel,” said EEOC Philadelphia regional attorney Debra M. Lawrence, whose jurisdiction includes Maryland. “Employers who are customers of staffing agencies have a responsibility to protect their temporary workers from unlawful discrimination. Too frequently, such employers fail to create systems to prevent and detect abuse of temporary workers and fail to respond forcefully to it. Those employers do so at their peril.”

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