LA-based VXI sued by EEOC on allegations of sexual harassment

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

An international call-center company based in Los Angeles was sued Wednesday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for widespread sexual harassment against female and male employees who reportedly were groped, shown pornographic images and propositioned by supervisors.

The EEOC said VXI Global Solutions had violated federal law by failing to curb the behavior, making it difficult for employees to file complaints and then disciplining and even firing some who reported the abuse.

The company, which has 15,000 employees in the U.S., Asia and Latin America, did not immediately return several calls seeking comment.

Anna Park, the regional EEOC attorney, said the case is unique because women and men were subjected to the abuse. The men endured an additional layer of harassment when they were mocked as not being masculine when they objected to the behavior.

“It’s telling that you have both men and women who were harassed,” Park said. “That exemplifies the pervasiveness of the problem.”

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court said the abuse dated back five years and was perpetuated by a male floor manager who created a hostile work environment with other supervisors at an LA call center. Six women and three men are named as victims in the complaint.

Women employees were subjected to groping, sexual propositions and lewd commentary about their bodies. Sexually harassing comments included talk of having a threesome with a woman who worked there and a joke about raping a female colleague.

One female supervisor is purportedly to have given unwanted backrubs to men in the office, and a female supervisor purportedly tried to give a lap dance to a male employee.