EEOC sues Walmart for sexual harassment, retaliation

Wal-Mart Stores East, LP violated federal law when it subjected female employees to sexual harassment and fired a female employee in retaliation for reporting the harassment, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charged in a lawsuit announced Tuesday. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, the manager of Walmart Supercenter #1499 in Lewisburg, West Virginia, subjected a class of female employees to egregious sexual harassment, including unwelcome and offensive sexual touching, requests for sexual acts in exchange for money or favorable treatment at work, requests that female workers expose intimate body areas, and making crude sexual innuendos. Wal-Mart Stores East, LP had received multiple complaints about the store manager’s conduct and failed to take appropriate action to stop the harassment. After the store manager subjected a female employee to particularly egregious harassment, she reported the harassment to Wal-Mart Stores East, LP, and the company fired her in retaliation for her actions opposing the harassment and for filing a charge of discrimination, the EEOC said.