Looking for New Jersey sexual harassment lawyers? This might help

Four women drivers have recently filed a lawsuit against the New Jersey Transit company for sexual harassment, after years of abuse at the hands of their supervisor. Their complaint describes the horrific abuse they had to put up with, which went from sexual comments to stalking and very inappropriate touching. The women said the supervisor would follow them around town, board their bus and try to force himself on them, and often exposed his genitals in front of them. When they complained to their bosses, they were ignored. 

If you are in a similar situation, you need to contact a good lawyer. You don’t want to be like these women who suffered for years. Sexual harassers don’t understand they need to stop unless they’re forced to. 

When you talk to seasoned sexual harassment lawyers the first thing they’ll ask is whether you reported the situation to your employer or filed a complaint with the HR. According to the law, you need to do that, giving your employer a chance to put things right. Clearly, the New Jersey Transit didn’t do anything. Actually, the four women accuse NJ Transit of  creating “a culture of fear and intimidation” by protecting their supervisor. 

The next step is to file a complaint with a state or federal authority. New Jersey employees can file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights. 

Employment lawyers can explain how to formulate your complaint and what are the two types of sexual harassment in the workplace, as described by the EEOC. The tragic story of the four women drivers amounts to a quid pro quo case, as their harasser was their supervisor. This explains why it took them so long to file a lawsuit. In most quid pro quo cases, the victims are afraid to speak out because their supervisor has the power to fire them or write a bad report on them, compromising their chances at a promotion or a pay raise. When you have a family and bills to pay, you cannot risk being sacked so many put up with the abuse. 

The second type of sexual harassment refers to the creation of a hostile environment. This happens when one or more workmates engage in verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. Inappropriate comments on someone’s looks, making sexual gestures or noises in their presence or bombarding them with obscene messages amount to sexual harassment if the incidents are of a pervasive nature. According to the lawsuit against NJ transit, the supervisor once sent one of the women a video of himself masturbating. Receiving such a message can be extremely traumatic, but make sure to save it to your device. Skilled New Jersey sexual harassment lawyers will see to it that any such message is passed on to the EEOC along with your formal complaint. 

As for the damages you are entitled to, that depends on the severity of your harassment. As it turned out, the NJ Transit supervisor had been named in a similar complaint more than a decade ago, when he worked for Hudson County jail system. In that case, the plaintiffs were awarded $2 million in compensatory damages.