FOREST LAKE AND STANCIU MANAGEMENT SUED BY EEOC FOR NATIONAL ORIGIN HARASSMENT AND RETALIATION

Property Management Companies Harassed a Class of Hispanic Workers, Federal Agency Charges

BALTIMORE – Three  interrelated companies which provide property management services to apartment  complexes in Maryland and Virginia violated federal law when they  subjected a class of Hispanic workers to harassment and suspended or fired  employees who opposed the illegal practices, the U.S. Equal Employment  Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today.

The EEOC alleges  in its lawsuit against Forest Lake, LLC, Forest Lake Inc. and Stanciu  Management filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland (Civil  Action No. 8:09-cv-02557-PJM), that the companies permitted ongoing harassment  of maintenance workers based on national origin at their property management  facility in Lanham, Md.. The harassment  included a manager repeatedly addressing employees with expletives and ethnic  epithets, such as “you f------ Puerto Rican”, “you f------ Salvadorans” and  “you f----- Mexicans.”

The EEOC  charges that the property management companies repeatedly threatened the  Hispanic workers with termination. The  company also treated them less favorably than non-Latino employees, such as  forbidding them from leaving the apartment complex, but allowing non-Hispanic  employees to do so, and giving them less time to complete work  assignments.

Further,  the companies fired Israel Irizarry and twice suspended Felix Gonzalez without  pay because of their national origin and because they opposed the harassment  and discrimination, accord­ing to the suit.

Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the  Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC  attempted to reach a voluntary settlement before filing suit. The EEOC is seeking injunctive relief to  prevent future discrimination and back pay, compensatory damages and punitive  damages on behalf of the victims of the discrimination.

“There is no excuse for the company to permit ethnic slurs and derogatory expletives  to permeate the workplace,” said EEOC Acting Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru. “And the company further compounded its  culpability by threatening and retaliating against its employees when they  opposed the illegal behavior. The EEOC will  act vigorously to uphold the laws prohibiting harassment and retaliation.”

“No  employee should be forced to withstand such hateful and biased comments to keep  his job,” said Debra Lawrence, acting regional attorney of the EEOC’s  Philadelphia District Office, which oversees Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware,  West Virginia, and parts of New Jersey and Ohio. “The EEOC filed this lawsuit to vindicate the  rights of all employees to earn a living free from unlawful harassment.”

        Workplace  discrimination charge filings with the federal agency nationwide rose to an  unprecedented level of 95,402 during Fiscal Year 2008—a 15 percent increase  from the previous fiscal year.

The  EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is  available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.