Boss told NC 911 operator to take off shirt — and she’s fired for complaining, feds say

A 911 operator in North Carolina had been on the job for just two days when she said her boss brought her to a supply closet to hand her a work shirt and then asked her to remove the one she was wearing.

“Why don’t you take your shirt off for me?” he reportedly asked, followed by, “don’t you want to advance in your career?”

She reported him, the government said. Five months later, she was fired.

Now the Justice Department is suing the county where the 911 operator worked, saying it violated the Civil Rights Act by dismissing her after she reportedly discussed the allegations of sexual harassment at work. The case centers on the Wilson County Emergency Communications department, where the 911 operator was hired as a trainee in March 2017.

Wilson is about 50 miles east of Raleigh.

The director of Wilson County Emergency Communications and the assistant county manager declined to comment in a statement to McClatchy News on Thursday, saying it was a “legal matter and a personnel matter.”

Fired for talking about sex harassment

According to the government’s civil complaint filed Wednesday in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the 911 operator reported the shirt incident with the assistant director to her training coordinator.

The coordinator reportedly told her to “ignore the behavior” because he “does these types of things all the time.”

The following month, the government said, the operator went alone with the assistant director to a site tower, where he reportedly asked her whether she liked sex.

He also told her that couples frequently came to this particular site to have sex, that he previously brought women there for that purpose and suggested that he requested she come with him that day “because he thought she was pretty,” the complaint states.

The Justice Department said the operator was “visibly shaken and upset” when she returned and reported the incident to her trainer, the training coordinator and the director, who brought it to the head of Wilson County Human Resources.

In a meeting on May 2, 2017 — four days after she went to the site tower — the director and the head of human resources told the 911 operator it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened with the assistant director and that he would be fired, the government said.

He retired before that happened.

According to the complaint, the assistant director had been a well-liked fixture in the emergency communications department for more than 30 years. After he retired, the 911 operator said she was treated differently by her coworkers, who began “excluding her from team dinners and rarely speaking directly to her.”

The person who was training the operator also reportedly requested that a woman take over for him.

“He told (the director) that he did not believe that (the assistant director) had harassed (the operator) and was worried that she would accuse him next,” the government said.

The 911 operator was moved to a new shift with a female trainer in August. On her first night working, the trainer reportedly asked her what happened with the former assistant director.

According to the government, the operator declined to answer until the trainer told her she needed to know as her supervisor.

She then explained the incident at the site tower, the investigation and that the assistant director had been allowed to retire without being disciplined, the government said. The trainer then reported their conversation to the shift supervisor and the director.

They ultimately decided to fire the operator on Aug. 28, 2017, for discussing the harassment allegations, the complaint states.

Civil Rights allegations

The 911 operator filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission the following month. A year later, the EEOC determined there was cause to believe the county had violated federal law in firing her.

Efforts to resolve the allegations directly with the county stalled in November 2018, and the case was passed to the Department of Justice’s civil division.

According to Wednesday’s complaint, the operator’s termination form states that she violated the county’s sexual harassment policy by talking about the allegations against the former assistant director.

But the government said the county never asked her about the circumstances of that conversation, nor did it conduct an investigation before firing her. The Justice Department also said the sexual harassment policy doesn’t bar victims of sexual harassment from discussing it with their supervisors.

Wilson County is accused of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin and religion. It also prevents employers from retaliating against workers who complain about discrimination.

Wednesday’s complaint seeks lost wages, prejudgment interest and compensatory damages.

The Justice Department also asked that Wilson County be required to institute anti-retaliation policies, distribute those policies to all employees and provide mandatory anti-retaliation training.

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