The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has urged an Illinois federal court to keep its lawsuit against a hog farm alive. The EEOC accuses the farm’s president and a worker of harassing a transgender female employee, asserting that sufficient details support its claims.
EEOC Trans Worker’s Harassment : EEOC Fights to Sustain Title VII Suit
In a Thursday response, the EEOC requested the court deny Sis-Bro Inc.’s motion to dismiss the Title VII suit. The suit, filed on behalf of an unidentified former employee, claims she was forced to resign after a co-worker exposed himself and made unwanted sexual advances.
Sis-Bro argued in May that the EEOC’s complaint lacked specifics and seemed generic because it did not identify any individuals. However, the EEOC countered that the company knows who is referenced in the complaint, which contains ample facts to substantiate the allegations.
“Sis-Bro relies on misrepresentations of the allegations in the complaint, strategic ignorance of documents that it acknowledges are part of the complaint, demands for factual pleading far beyond what is required by the law, and misstatements of precedent in order to contort EEOC’s complaint into a complaint that allegedly fails to state a claim,” the EEOC stated.
Harassment and Forced Resignation
The EEOC sued the New Athens, Illinois, hog farm in March. The complaint alleges the company’s president persistently used the employee’s former name and criticized her gender-affirming care when she began her transition in 2018. The situation escalated when a new employee touched her breasts, exposed himself, and frequently made unwanted sexual comments.
