Originally published on the Employer's Law Blog
The Connecticut Supreme Court recently ruled that employers can be held liable for failing to protect employees from harassment based on sexual orientation.
In Patino v. Birken Manufacturing Company, a former Birken Manufacturing employee brought suit alleging the company failed to take reasonable steps to prevent his coworkers from harassing him based on his sexual orientation. Plaintiff Luis Patino alleged that he was the subject of anti-gay slurs for years while working as a machinist for Birken.
Connecticut's highest court rejected the defendant's argument that hostile work environment claims are limited to sexual harassment claims. Instead, the court held that employees can recover under state law when discrimination based on sexual orientation has created a hostile or abusive work environment. The court noted that Connecticut law protects victims of sexual orientation discrimination to the same extent it protects victims of other forms of discrimination. The jury reasonably could have determined that the plaintiff was subjected to a hostile work environment when derogatory comments were made multiple times per week, sometimes several times a day, over a prolonged period of time, despite his repeated complaints to his supervisors. The court rejected the defendant's argument that the $94,500 jury award was too high.
This decision is understood to be the first by a state's highest court to hold that employers can be held liable for failing to protect employees from harassment based on sexual orientation. It should serve as a reminder to employers to take all employee complaints about discrimination seriously and to avoid any kind of hostile or abusive work environment.
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