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Dive brief:
- A San Francisco Bay Area construction contractor has agreed to settle a harassment charge retaliation against a transgender workerthe Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission announced in a July 18 press release.
- Supervisors and co-workers at Fremont, Calif.-based Superior Automatic Sprinkler Company allegedly targeted the transgender worker with verbal harassment and physical threats because of her gender identity and sexual orientation, the agency said.
- The company allegedly reassigned the worker to other jobs in retaliation after he reported the harassment; he eventually left the company because he didn’t feel safe enough to return to work, the EEOC said. Superior will pay monetary damages, revise its non-discrimination policies and conduct employee training to prevent discrimination and harassment.
Diving knowledge:
Superior Automatic Sprinkler Company, which installs, inspects, services, repairs and consults on fire sprinkler systems, according to its website, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The EEOC has focused on racial, sexual, and gender-based harassment in the construction industry, where the occurrence of hooking up and other threatening behavior in the workplace has drawn media attention in recent years.
In June, the agency published a Anti-Harassment Guide for Contractors to help them combat bias-motivated events and the creation of hostile work environments in workplaces.
The guidance followed a report in June 2023 detailing the continued prevalence of hatred and prejudice to the construction of jobsnoting that construction stands out from other industries for “egregious incidents of harassment.”
