Legal Question in Employment Law in Missouri

There will be a few questions in this just so you know. Some of them are for my reference and others are for my own.\n\nDescription of what is going on: My mother works with me at a clothing store, she has over heard/been told by her supervisor twice that he \"hates working with women\" as well as \"women are idiots\"\n\nThese are derogatory statements that can be seen as discrimination. As well, he emotionally/verbally abuses his employees to tears. Today, my mother did go to the head managers and talked to them about this issue. They asked her to get it in writing for them by tomorrow which she did, but now he is trying to \"wage war\" against her as a form of retaliation. He has been trying to get the remaining supervisors and managers to be against her.\n\nIs this legal for him to do this? What actions can she take?\n\nThis last employee meeting he lied to my mom about various issues (and this can be proven I suspect) and when she began to cry in front of him he began to yell at her and accuse her of being her fault, when in all actuality the lie he had made was irrelevant to the question she had asked. She asked for him to explain how last week he was upset with her for doing too many tasks and he had told her to stop doing tasks completely and only full timers can do tasks and this week he was angry with her for not doing tasks anymore. To this he responded with \"Well I have at least 10 witnesses of people you work with who have come up to me and told me all you do is read magazines and newspapers.\"\n\nIs this legal for him to do this as well?\n\nNext question:\n\nThere is a woman I am close to in that store as well, and she works under this same supervisor. He has told her some things that are disturbing such as \"During my interview with you, I was thinking to myself I must be crazy for hiring her!\" (which was voiced as a compliment during the last employee review. She has worked her for almost a year now so something with the interview now I do find irrelevant and inappropriate.)\n\nHe also told her during employee meeting that he hopes she doesn\'t burst in tears like my mom had and also preceded to tell her about my mom\'s employee interview which made her extremely uncomfortable.\n\nThere were instances where she has told her she was an idiot or stupid in front of customers and other employees as well.\n\nWas he crossing any boundaries during this employee meeting? What actions can be taken for this? She has also expressed that she would like to go to a higher manager but is afraid of losing her job because he had told her that if she told anyone he would completely lose all trust in her and so forth. Would he be able to take away her job for stepping forward on this?\n\nLast question which involves me.\n\nI work for a company which is contracted by the company the woman and my mother work for. I am afraid that since my mother is the main subject of what is going on that I am going to be effected. I have already seen the effect in the things he does (especially today). For instance, he has taken it upon himself to completely give me the cold shoulder, as well as refusing to open the trash compactor for me. He has told this woman that I am close with that if she talked to me at work she would be the one in trouble and that he would talk to me but does not want to.\n\nAll in all what can I do to protect myself if he decides retaliating against my mother is not enough and goes after me?\n\nI do realise that there are more personal issues in there, but I am hoping to sort out the legal and personal and also I know this was long, but I would appreciate any input on this matter. Thank you in advance.\n


Asked on 7/28/09, 9:08 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Anthony Smith LawSmith

If your mother took a concern about overt gender discriminatory action by her supervisor to the managment of the business, through proper channels, then she has done nothing wrong, if she was truthful. If she believes that the supervisor is retaliating against her for truthfully taking her concer through the proper channels, then the company, not just the superviosr may have violated the law. To be held accountable, the company has to be infomred about the retailiatory conduct and be given an opportunity to address it. In that case, your mother should giver her written concerns about retaliation, which should include sprecific dates, activities, behaviors and comments, to the same managment team she went to before, or one step up. If she feels that she has coworker tha is also being treated differently because of her gender, she should mention this without givng names, in her written report, and encourage that coworker to make her own initial report.

If you feel that this particular supervisor does nto like you now because your mother has raised issues about him to his superiors, then there may be little you can do. The law does not require that people be likeable or personable. As I understand your description of the situation, you do nto work for the same company as your mother, but for another conpmay that is in acontract with that company. If you feel that you are being worngfully treated based upon oone of hte listed personal criteria, i.e. race, gender, etc. then you may need to take this up with your employer. If this other company is a customer of your employer, perhaps you can ask to be transferred to another customer's account.

Good Luck

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Answered on 8/04/09, 3:58 pm


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