Opinion ID: 2995181
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Allegations Within the Scope of

Text: Review Defendant contends that much of plaintiff’s federal complaint is beyond the scope of her EEOC complaint and should not be considered by the court. [A] Title VII plaintiff may bring only those claims that were included in her EEOC charge, or that are like or reasonably related to the allegations of the charge and growing out of such allegations. McKenzie v. Ill. Dep’t. of Transp., 92 F.3d 473, 481 (7th Cir. 1996) (internal quotation and citations omitted). The claims are not alike or reasonably related unless there is a factual relationship between them. This means that the EEOC charge and the complaint must, at minimum, describe the same conduct and implicate the same individuals. Cheek v. W. & S. Life Ins. Co., 31 F.3d 497, 501 (7th Cir. 1994). This rule serves the dual purpose of affording the EEOC and the employer an opportunity to settle the dispute through conference, conciliation and persuasion, and of giving the employer some warning of the conduct about which the employee is aggrieved. Id. at 500 (citations omitted). Additionally, we have recognized that employees often file the EEOC charge without the assistance of a lawyer, thus a Title VII plaintiff need not allege in an EEOC charge each and every fact that combines to form the basis of each claim in her complaint. Id. In light of these standards, we find that plaintiff’s allegations are reasonably within the scope of her ERD/ EEOC complaint. Plaintiff’s complaint alleged that the School District, through its reorganizations, was eliminating jobs that were held by women, which is certainly different than the thrust of the federal suit. However, this was not all her ERD complaint alleged: Workload and duties were created [for the women] after choosing work site. Job duties and new maintenance assignment have created such [ ] stress and low self esteem that two of the women will be retiring Oct. 1. Stress from all the workload and no training in maintenance, low self esteem from male co-workers making negative remarks about [how] women should not receive the same pay as men, [and that] women should be in a different classification. Accused of not carrying our workload. For the past year and a half my workload has been increased and with the start of this school year my workload has become outrageous and impossible to complete on a daily schedule. The allegations of newly imposed maintenance assignments, negative comments, and an increased workload are all allegations made in the federal complaint. Further, the School District had no reason to be surprised by the nature of her legal claims, because her ERD complaint stated that it was based on sex discrimination and harassment. Cf. Cheek, 31 F.3d at 503-04 (finding that plaintiff had not provided ample notice to her employer that she was complaining of a hostile work environment because that claim could not even be inferred from her complaint). While many of the events discussed in plaintiff’s brief occurred after she filed her complaint, most of them occurred shortly after, in late 1998 and early 1999, and they are all the types of incidents that one would reasonably expect to be discovered during the course of an EEOC investigation into the allegations in the charge. See id. at 500 (citing Jenkins v. Blue Cross Mut. Hosp. Ins., Inc., 538 F.2d 164, 167 (7th Cir. 1976) (en banc)). Finally, the Board contends that plaintiff is time-barred from relying on any evidence of harassment occurring more than 300 days prior to the date she filed her EEOC charge. See 42 U.S.C. sec. 2000e-5(e)(1); Wis. Stat. sec. 111.39(1) (2001). Plaintiff filed her ERD complaint on September 24, 1998; thus, events occurring prior to November 28, 1997 would be excluded from consideration. This would prevent review of some of the alleged events (her ERD complaint alleges that the discriminatory and harassing actions began in December of 1996), including Fougner’s questioning of Haugerud’s ability to be a day custodian; Norsted’s conversation with Haugerud, on November 25, 1997, in which he asked her to give up her position so that Fougner could return to it; and Hinke’s derogatory comments. These events seem to lay the foundation for the events that followed, however, and could arguably be considered as part of a single, continuing course of harassment. Saxton v. AT&T, 10 F.3d 526, 532 n.11 (7th Cir. 1993). The continuing violations doctrine allows a court to consider as timely all discriminatory conduct relevant to a claim, so long as there is sufficient evidence of a pattern or policy of discrimination. Hardin v. S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., 167 F.3d 340, 344 (7th Cir. 1999), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 874, 120 S. Ct. 178, 145 L. Ed. 2d 150 (1999). As the district court did not address the issue, and the School District only makes the bare assertion that events outside the 300 days should not be considered, we will not undertake to parse [plaintiff’s] claims in an effort to weed out time- barred incidents. Saxton, 10 F.3d at 532-33 n.11; see also Young v. Will County Dept. of Pub. Aid, 882 F.2d 290, 292 (7th Cir. 1989) (All doubts on jurisdictional timeliness are to be resolved in favor of trial.). Thus we will consider all incidents presented in plaintiff’s complaint and appellate briefs./3