Manager threatens worker’s job after she rejects invitation to his hotel room, feds say

A Montana utility company will pay $50,000 to a former employee who was sexually harassed by her manager and retaliated against after she rejected an invitation to his hotel room, according to federal officials.

This comes after NorVal Electric Cooperative previously paid the woman $1,702,148.43 in damages after a state court proceeding filed in the sexual harassment case in 2017, Montana Law Week reported.

The employee, while an office manager and accountant for the company, faced sexual comments, questions about her sex life and unwanted touching, including “long hugs,” from her supervisor since May 2017, a federal lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on her behalf says.

As she wore fake eyelashes, her supervisor once told her that “women who wore false eyelashes were looking to have an affair,” and asked her “whether she was having an affair with the executive of a business,” according to a complaint filed by the EEOC in 2019.

The harassment “escalated” in October 2017, according to the EEOC, during a business trip when he invited her to his hotel room and offered to give her a key.

After the woman “adamantly refused,” the complaint says he retaliated against her and threatened her job. As she tried to report him, NorVal prevented her from making complaints to anyone besides him, the EEOC said in a May 9 news release.

“Forcing a person to report harassment to her harasser runs contrary to business sense and best practice,” Elizabeth M. Cannon, the director of the EEOC’s Seattle Field Office, said in a statement.

In a written reprimand days later, the manager warned her against challenging his “authority to manage NorVal” and threatened to “immediately” fire her if she continued to challenge him, the complaint says.

Then he proposed a severance package for her to “leave immediately,” told her she wasn’t welcome on NorVal’s property, initiated her firing and suspended her “indefinitely,” according to the complaint.

More than six years later, NorVal, which is based in Valley County, has agreed to pay the employee $50,000 in damages to settle the EEOC’s claims of sexual harassment and retaliation, the agency announced in the release.

NorVal and an attorney representing the company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on May 13.

“This harasser tried to put himself above the law, and it took incredible courage for this employee to come forward. I hope this settlement brings her some measure of relief,” EEOC Senior Trial Attorney Amos Blackman said in a statement.

The settlement comes after the employee filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC and accused NorVal of making her endure a hostile work environment “on the basis of her sex” — and that the company retaliated against her for opposing the sexual harassment, the complaint says.

Sexual harassment and retaliation at work violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The employee was named as an intervenor plaintiff in the case and was represented by attorney Todd Shea Jr.

What happened in the state case?

In state court, the employee’s case against NorVal went to trial in February 2019, according to documents provided to McClatchy News by Shea.

In October 2019, a Montana hearing officer “issued a decision finding in favor of (the employee) on both her sexual harassment and retaliation claims,” Shea told McClatchy News in an email.

NorVal appealed the officer’s decision, but the Montana Human Rights Commission denied NorVal’s appeal in a Final Agency Decision issued in February 2020, according to court documents.

Afterward, NorVal appealed this decision – resulting in Montana’s 17th Judicial District Court to affirm the Human Rights Commission’s liability findings on Feb. 26, 2021, Shea said.

NorVal filed another appeal, which was heard by the state Supreme Court. The court ultimately upheld the liability findings.

In an opinion issued December 2022, the state Supreme Court wrote:

“(The employee) took offense to Herbert’s actions, reported them as best she could, and yet, NorVal took no positive steps to address or remedy the situation.”

Shea told McClatchy News that since NorVal “would not allow (his client) to make her complaint about (the manager)“ she “went out on unpaid leave from NorVal in December 2017” and “never returned to NorVal because it never investigated (her) claims.”

The company terminated her employment in July 2021, he said.

The manager “never received any discipline whatsoever by his employer NorVal as a result of (her) claims. (He) voluntarily resigned from NorVal in January 2023 with continued medical benefits,” Shea added.

As part of a three-year consent decree that resolves the federal lawsuit, NorVal is not allowed to employ the manager accused of harassing the employee. It’s unclear when he stopped working for the company.

NorVal must also hire an independent consultant to help the company create “anti-discrimination policies and procedures, receive and independently and confidentially investigate any complaints of sexual harassment and/or retaliation, and recommend appropriate corrective action to remedy any complaints of discrimination or retaliation,” the EEOC said.

If a NorVal employee wants to make a complaint, the company must make multiple people available to hear the complaints, according to the EEOC.

NorVal must also hold anti-discrimination training for all employees, the agency said.

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