On Wednesday, a federal civil rights agency filed a sexual harassment lawsuit in federal court on the behalf of a former electric cooperative employee in northeastern Montana.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit alleges that the current general manager at NorVal Electric Cooperative, in Glasgow, sexually harassed an employee between May and October 2017 and then threatened her job when she tried to report the harassment.
EEOC senior trial attorney, Amos Blackman, says the woman was effectively forced to leave her job after she was blocked from filing the report with an authority above the general manager.
“There’s both the sexual harassment and thhen that retaliaton, and those are both twin aspects of this case,” says Blackman.
The lawsuit claims that the general manager repeatedly threatened the employee’s job and created a hostile environment. YPR did not receive a comment from NorVal by the time this story aired.
A press release from EEOC states the court complaint comes after attempts at a conciliation agreement and the woman also filed a charge with the Montana Human Rights Bureau.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for Montana, Great Falls Division, and EEOC is seeking money damages on behalf of the victim in addition to company policy changes.
