Companies Allowed Team Lead to Sexually Harass Female Employees, Federal Agency Charges

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Prestigious Placement and Prosero d/b/a Spinnaker Management Group, operating as joint employers, violated federal civil rights law when they engaged in discrimination by subjecting female employees to a sexually hostile work environment, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

According to the EEOC’s suit, beginning in at least February 2021, a male team lead routinely subjected female employees to inappropriate sexual comments and text messages. When the female employees reported the harassment, Spinnaker retaliated against them by terminating their employment. One female employee reported the harassment to the onsite manager for Prestigious Placement and two supervisors for Spinnaker, but they ignored the complaints.

The EEOC claims that both Prestigious Placement and Spinnaker knew or should have known of the team lead’s sexually harassing behavior and that they failed to take appropriate corrective action to eliminate the sexual harassment from the workplace, and further, terminated female employees when they complained about the harassment.

Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits harassment based on sex in the workplace. After first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its voluntary conciliation process, the EEOC filed suit EEOC v. Prestigious Placement, Inc., Civil Case No. 2:23-cv-02568 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.

The EEOC seeks monetary relief for the female employees, including compensatory and punitive damages. The EEOC also seeks injunctive relief against the companies to end any ongoing harassment and to prevent such unlawful conduct in the future.

“Sexual harassment of women in the workforce remains a serious problem and combating this remains a priority of the EEOC,” said Edmond Sims, acting district director of the EEOC’s Memphis District Office. “In the present case, the sexual harassment led to defendants retaliating against the women by terminating their employment after they reported the problems to management.”

The EEOC’s Memphis District Office has jurisdiction over Arkansas, Tennessee, and portions of Mississippi.

For more information about sexual harassment, visit: https://www.eeoc.gov/sexual-harassment. To learn more about retaliation: https://www.eeoc.gov/retaliation.

The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. More information is available at www.eeoc.gov.