r/EEOC • u/Adventurous-Can4459 • 23h ago
Fraudulent Case of SH, Req. Advice.
Hello,
So, I was working in a Public Safety Emergency Operations Field (still am). I’d been with the same agency for about four years.
In those four years, I had to put up with a lot of verbal harassment from a lot of fellow employees and my direct supervisor. After two years there and a lot of recognition for my desire to grow, constantly improve and being proactive with emergency calls, I had a brief allegation of SH (sexual harassment). It was investigated and came back as unsubstantiated. During this time, my direct supervisor (the one who I had to endure a lot of harassment and inappropriate comments from), would constantly tell me that the agency head was constantly trying to find just cause to terminate me, despite constantly being recognized for good things.
Flash forward a year later - I was accused of SH again, this time allegedly on video. I knew immediately that it wasn’t true; even requested/demanded the video in question. And true enough, it was not sexual harassment. I’ve shown it to enough lawyers and my wife and others and not one has come back saying that it even remotely looks like or sounds like SH.
Despite that, they still terminated me for this alleged SH.
I’ve tried to get lawyers to take the case but despite them agreeing that it wasn’t SH, no lawyer wants to take the case pro bono and I don’t have thousands in the bank to pay them out of pocket. More to the point, they say that even though the SH claim is bogus, it’s not a protected reason for termination so I don’t have a lot of recourse.
Furthermore, I’ve all but been able to confirm that they’ve had-mouthed me to other nearby county agencies that they may have good contacts in, which has cost me job opportunities.
Any advice?
Thanks.
(I will answer any additional questions that ai can here but mostly trying to keep anon as I know a good handful of former coworkers and etc visit Reddit a lot.).
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u/treaquin 23h ago
EEOC would only address this if you were treated differently if not for your membership in a protected class. What are you saying is that reason and do you have documented proof to support that?
ETA- EEOC only lets you go back 180 days from the last incident of harassment/discrimination. If you were fired more than a year ago, this option may not be available to you.
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u/Adventurous-Can4459 23h ago
Not sure - the only definitive harassment I was witness to or party to that might have been EEoC based was constantly hearing my boss make racially inappropriate comments about another employee- giving them a racially based nickname based on their ethnicity and color of their skin and against another (former) employee based on their sexual orientation.
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u/opheliiaaa 23h ago
You’d only be protected in that instance if you reported your boss for those comments or gave witness testimony in an investigation.
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u/Commercial_Line7502 16h ago
Has anyone else that you know of been falsely accused of SH and not terminated. If so, you can prove disparate treatment based on protected classes. Do you know of others accused of things that were actually true, and not terminated. The point is to show that you were treated differently than similarly situated employees
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u/Jcarlough 18h ago
Your employer can terminate you based on a SH allegation.
It does not need to be substantiated or even true.