Former Planet Fitness Manager Makes Allegations of Harassment and Rape

A former manager of a Planet Fitness sued the well-known gym claiming that the company supported a male-dominated, and “debaucherous” workplace. Among her complaints are allegations of sexual harassment and rape. Senior management for the Planet Fitness location headquarters organized drinking activities for the employees. For example, “Fireball Friday.”

Fireball Friday games had employees competing to drink the most shots in the least amount of time at work. One manager also brought vodka-based gummy worms to work. Casey Willard joined the company in 2015. When she was new on the job, she followed her managers’ direction and doing so sometimes left her at work and drunk by 11:00 in the morning.

Willard filed suit against Planet Fitness in September. Amid a number of employment law violations, Willard also alleges that she was drugged and raped by a company manager and his friends during a September 2017 business trip to California. According to the lawsuit, she reported the rape to the local police and to Planet Fitness. It is not clear what became of the police report or what action was taken by law enforcement. Willard discussed the problem with two Planet Fitness attorneys and clearly stated that she didn’t want others at the company to know what happened to her, but later discovered that other managers knew of the situation.

Willard also claimed in the lawsuit that one of her managers initiated a sexual relationship with her; which was in violation of the company’s anti-fraternization policy. She was concerned that she might lose her job due to the situation. She eventually let the company know (earlier this year) that she couldn’t return to work.

Willard described the work environment at the Planet Fitness corporate offices as “debaucherous.” Senior management was mostly male and most of them made “openly sexual comments, sexual innuendo, and engaged in pretend sexual contact toward female employees.” In response to Willard’s claims, Planet Fitness states that they investigated Willard’s claims and fired an employee for violation of Planet Fitness policy. The company stated that they also discovered that Willard engaged in a consensual relationship with a supervisor that she didn’t bring to the company’s attention. That supervisor was also fired. The company disputes Willard’s other allegations and claims they are baseless.

Willard seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages arising from sexual harassment and a hostile work environment, discrimination and wrongful termination.

If you are fighting sexual harassment in the workplace or if you need to discuss what to do when your employer supports a hostile work environment, please get in touch with one of the experienced California employment law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP.

Does Google Discriminate Against White Male Conservatives?

A former Google Engineer, James Damore, filed a class action lawsuit against Google claiming that they discriminate against white, male, conservatives after he was fired in August. Damore’s firing occurred after he posted a memo to an internal message board at the company presenting a very specific argument:

Damore’s memo argued that women may not be equally represented in tech because they are “biologically less capable” of engineering.

In response to his termination, Damore filed a class action lawsuit against Google in Santa Clara Superior Court. In his suit, Damore claims that Google unfairly discriminates against white men with conservative political views that are not “popular” with Google execs. 

Damore is not making allegations alone either. He is joined by another former Google engineer: David Gudeman. Gudeman spent 3 years working on a query engine for the company. According to his publicly accessible LinkedIn profile, Gudeman left Google in December 2016 and has since been self-employed.

The lawsuit states that it is intended to represent any employees of Google that have been discriminated against as a result of their “perceived conservative political views” by the company or due to their male gender or being a Caucasian. The plaintiffs specifically accuse Google of singling out and systematically mistreating employees that express views that deviate from the popular or “norm” at Google pertaining to various political topics raised in the workplace and/or issues that are relevant to Google’s policies and procedures in relation to employment or business. The lawsuit includes examples, such as: diversity hiring policies, bias sensitivity, social justice, etc.

The men are seeking monetary, non-monetary and punitive remedies.

Google stated that Damore was fired for violating the company code of conduct and promoting negative gender stereotypes in the workplace. The Labor Department is conducting a separate investigation into systemic pay discrimination at Google, but Google denies that there is a problem stating that they have found no pay gap in their own analysis.

If you need assistance filing a California wrongful termination law suit, please get in touch with one of the experienced employment law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP.

Former Eagles Quarterback McNabb Suspended Due to Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

Former Eagles quarterback, Donovan McNabb, is amongst a short list of players recently accused of sexual harassment by the same woman. As a result, McNabb was suspended from his ESPN job as an on-air NFL pundit. (He also had one of the most decorated careers of any Eagles quarterback).

The woman who filed the sexual harassment lawsuit is Jami Cantor, a former wardrobe stylist for the NFL. She worked in the position from 2006 through 2016 and claims that while she was in the employment of the NFL, she experienced sexual harassment at the hands of McNabb, and other fellow athletes including: Heath Evans, Ike Taylor, Warren Sapp, and Marshall Faulk. 

McNabb was the last Philadelphia quarterback to lead the team to the Super Bowl (and the team has only been to the Super Bowl twice). He has also been a frequent visitor to the current team. This isn’t the first time McNabb has found himself facing legal trouble. In 2015, he was arrested in Arizona and was sentenced to 18 days in jail for DUI. Cantor claims that McNabb (and several other players/employees) made lewd comments and groped her while she was employed at the NFL Network Studio in Culver City, California. She also claims that McNabb sent texted her inappropriately with crude, sexual comments on multiple occasions.

According to the lawsuit, Faulk asked her about her sex life, fondled her inappropriately, groped her from behind, and exposed himself to her after inviting her into his hotel room while making sexual demands.

In the same lawsuit, Cantor claims that Evans, a former Patriot, sent nude photos of himself and made sexual propositions to her.

She also claims that Davis, former 49er groped/rubbed her and made a number of crude/lewd statements. 

Cantor also included allegations against a former Steeler, Taylor, stating that he sent photos and video of himself masturbating in the shower.

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneer, Sapp, was included in the lawsuit due to an incident when he entered a bathroom in which Cantor was preparing a wardrobe and urinated in front of her. He also allegedly gifted Cantor with sex toys for Christmas every year for three years and sent her nude pictures of women he had been with sexually.

Prior to filing the sexual harassment lawsuit, Cantor filed a wrongful termination lawsuit in October stating that she was fired without prior warning for allegedly stealing clothing from a player. Cantor denies this charge.

If you have been wrongfully terminated or you aren’t sure if your situation qualifies as wrongful termination, please get in touch with one of the experienced California employment law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP.