Opinion ID: 798041
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Boumehdi's Working Conditions

Text: 4 In January 2002, Ed Vega became the supervisor in the lithographic press department. Beginning in the late summer or early fall of 2002, and continuing over the next ten months, Vega made at least eighteen sex-based comments to Boumehdi. For example, from January to July of 2003, Vega told Boumehdi five or more times that women do not belong in the pressroom and think they know everything. 2 Once, while Boumehdi was bending over in the course of her work, Vega told her to remain in that position and that it was perfect. He also told her that women should work in flower shops and that she should wear low cut blouses and shorter shorts. In 2003, when Boumehdi was pregnant, Vega asked her if she had gotten a breast enlargement over the weekend. Later, upon finding out that Boumehdi had miscarried, Vega asked her what business she had getting pregnant at her age. On another occasion, Vega told her that just because she is a woman does not mean that she should not take out the trash. In December 2002, January 2003, and April 2003, Vega told Boumehdi to clean the pressroom, adding that he did not ask the men to do the cleaning because that's what women are supposed to do. In mid-2002 and early 2003, Vega said that he had to leave work to get a lap dance down the street. Boumehdi claimed that Vega made additional comments over the ten-month period, although she could not specifically recall them. 5 In February 2003, Boumehdi met with Bell and complained about Vega's comments. She characterized Vega's behavior as harassing and discriminating. Bell assured Boumehdi that he would talk to Vega and take care of the problem. When Vega saw Boumehdi exiting Bell's office, he said, you're complaining about me, aren't you? Vega then warned her that if [she] didn't watch it, [she'd] be scrubbing the floors and doing the toilets. After meeting with Bell, Boumehdi gave him periodic updates on the situation with Vega. Bell continued to assure her that he was looking into the matter. On at least one other occasion, Vega commented to Boumehdi about her meetings with Bell. Specifically, as she was exiting Bell's office, Vega said, oh, you're in HR; you're complaining about me again. 6 In late February or early March 2003, Boumehdi noticed that her paycheck for the week of February 24 was 2.5 hours short. At first, she thought the shortage was a mistake, but when she attempted to talk to Vega about the problem, he refused to speak to her. Boumehdi complained to Bell about the shortage and also complained that Vega did not pay her for working through her lunch, although he paid her colleagues for doing so. In March or April, Vega changed Boumehdi's schedule so that she started later and quit earlier, meaning that she earned less money each week. 3 7 In a performance review dated March 3, 2003, Vega gave Boumehdi the worst rating of her career, which caused her to receive no annual raise. 4 The review stated that Boumehdi has overthought jobs to change what material to run and has been wrong, needs to focus on job of loading press & cleanup, and has been seen by other coworkers & supervisors to take more breaks than observed & to read magazines & paper while press is running — leaving press operator to check jobs alone. It also noted that her attitude on a given day determines amount of work to be completed on that day and that her performance level was up & down throughout review period. 8 Boumehdi disputes the criticisms, emphasizing that the March 2003 review was the first time she received written notice of her alleged misbehavior, although other employees had been written up for similar behavior. When presented with the March 2003 review, Boumehdi refused to sign it and confronted Vega. He responded that women don't belong in the pressroom and that they think they know everything. He also told Boumehdi that she better quit complaining about him to human resources. 9 Over the next few months, Boumehdi complained to Bell about Vega's alleged harassment and retaliatory activity, but her paychecks continued to come up short and she did not believe that human resources was responding to her multiple complaints. On July 7, 2003, Boumehdi left Bell a note indicating that her work environment had become intolerable and that she had been singled out and discriminated against since February. On July 10, 2003, Boumehdi resigned from Plastag.