dealership operations / compliance
Harmless Horseplay is not a Harassment Defense
Jim Radogna is the president of Dealer Compliance Consultants, Inc., a compliance resources and training firm located in San Diego, Calif. Jim has a strong background in dealership operations, having spent more than 15 years in diversified roles such as sales manager, F&I; director, general manager and director of training.
JRadogna@AutoDealerMonthly.com
harassment and discrimination lawsuits being filed against car dealerships. "What?" you may ask yourself. "In this day and age? Sorry Jim, that's a thing of the past. Everyone has policies against harass- ment these days."
I
I wish I could agree, but all you have to do is Google "auto
n my opinion, even in this age of awareness, there are alarming numbers of
dealer harassment" to see I'm not delusional.
It doesn't help that car dealer- ships are a favorite target of government regulators and, of course, employment attorneys. For instance, Stuart J. Ishimaru, then-acting chair- man of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), said in a 2010 public statement following a gender discrimination suit at
a Colorado dealership that "sexual harassment and sex discrimination against women in traditionally male-domi- nated industries, such as the auto industry, are still unfortunate realities." Follow- ing the EEOC filing of an October 2009 lawsuit against a Chicago-area dealer, the commission's regional attorney, John Hendrickson, said with women's powerful collective voice in the market- place three years ago when the automotive industry strug- gled to survive, it is "amazing" that contempt or sexual harassment would be shown toward female customers.
See what I'm saying?
It's not just sexual harassment either. Federal and state laws
and court decisions indicate that conduct can become illegal when an employer, supervisor, co-worker, cus- tomer or vendor engages in unwelcome verbal or physical conduct against a person because of their race, color, creed, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, religion, age (40-plus), disability (mental or physical), sex (whether or not of a sexual nature and including same-gender harass- ment and gender-identity harassment), arrest or conviction record, marital status, sexual orientation or military status. In the month of August 2012 alone, I found news stories for dealership cases involving national origin discrimination, sexual harass- ment, racism, retaliation and same-gender harassment.
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