From: mikeod@ico.isc.com (Mike O'Donnel)
Subject: need info about on-the-job harrasement (long)
Keywords: harrassment
Organization: Interactive Systems Corporation, Boulder, CO
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 18:16:40 GMT

A friend of mine was a contractor for Company A, who in turn
placed her at Company B where she provided services for B.
She work there daily for four years.  Her salary was based on
commisions from sales of products represented by Company A to
Company B.  She reported to a Company B supervisor and
coordinated her efforts with that supervisor.  During these
four years she had three different supervisors.  The first
two were reasonable and were willing to work with her when
 problems arose.  The third supervisor was not so willing 
to work with her.  From what we could determine there were
a couple of reasons for why he didn't like her.  He told
her on several occasions that she made too much money and
that she should be paid hourly.  As a contractor she is able
to set her own working hours.  This didn't sit well with the
supervisor even though it is legal and acceptable.  He also
mentioned that she didn't care about the Company B sales of
her product and only cared about her paycheck, even though
her sales of her product ranked extremely high nationally.
Other workers for Company B speculated that the supervisor
had an inferiority complex in relation to her.  For 
what reasons he didn't get along with, I'm not totally sure,
I can only speculate.  But during her time working with him
he was constantly looking for things to blame her for, most
of which were not her fault or doing.  Several times he went
directly to the manager and placed blame on her for something
she had nothing to do with at all.  It got so bad that for
about two months she would go home crying and depressed, but
she felt somewhat helpless since she needed the job. 
The manager was always reasonable and could pretty much see thru
this guys accusations.  One of the assistant managers finally had
to tell the supervisor to 'back off' and try his best to be
nice to her and get along.  But soon the manager transferred to
another site and a new manager arrived.  This manager was not
so reasonable as the first and in a matter of weeks, her contract
was terminated.  One day out of the blue, the new management decided
to check her work.  They dismissed her on a technical issue.  You
could go into any location where these same services are provided
by Company B to Company A and find that everyone violates the 
policy, but no one else normally gets terminated.  Also, Company B
did not check the work of any other service providers (and there
are several), only hers.

My question is this.  Is there any law that addresses the problem
of a supervisor constantly being on someones case with the intent
to make them look bad, and possibly get them fired?  There were
many statments  made that were untrue, but eventually it appears
that managment took the position that there must be something to
the complaints that the supervisor was voicing.  Is it
some form of discrimination to check only one persons work when
others are subject to the same rules?  She has been an execellent
worker for four years, extremely dependable and hard working.
She is not disputing the cause for dismissal because it is valid, there
is a technical reason for it.  But it is rarely enforced or pursued.

Any help, info or pointers will be greatly appreciated.

Mike 
Newsgroups: misc.legal