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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.

The EEOC claims that these incidents occurred under managerial supervision, yet Sis-Bro failed to address the harassment. This persistent misconduct led the employee to quit in October 2021.

Sis-Bro's Arguments Challenged

Sis-Bro argued that the EEOC's case is invalid because much of the alleged misconduct occurred before the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which extended Title VII protections to include gender identity and sexual orientation. However, the EEOC stated that courts, including the Seventh Circuit, have applied Bostock retroactively.

The EEOC also rebutted Sis-Bro's assertion that the complaint lacked sufficient facts to survive a dismissal motion. It detailed the misconduct's timing, the harassers, and specific harassment incidents. The EEOC emphasized that the harassment was subjectively offensive and intolerable, forcing the employee to resign.

"Sis-Bro's arguments that EEOC failed to plead responses to various elements of the prima facie case, including subjective offense in the context of severe or pervasive harassment, or that the charging party quit in the context of constructive discharge, do not justify dismissal," the EEOC said. "EEOC described the conduct with sufficient detail to put Sis-Bro on notice of the claims and to plausibly give rise to a claim for relief."

EEOC Trans Worker's Harassment  : Legal Representation

A representative of Sis-Bro did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. The EEOC declined to comment.

The EEOC is represented in-house by Ethan M.M. Cohen, Jonathan Delozano, and Anne Gallerano. Sis-Bro is represented by Scott Cruz and Katherine L. Fechte of UB Greensfelder LLP.