The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed dismissal of sex discrimination claims filed by a worker at Hyundai’s Montgomery, Alabama manufacturing facility. See Vickers v. Hyundai Motor Mfg. Ala., LLC, No. 15-14905, 2016 WL 1459112 (Apr. 14, 2016).
In May 2012, Regina Vickers claimed that she was sexually harassed when her supervisor made inappropriate comments to her and engaged in unwelcome touching. Hyundai promptly investigated Vickers’s claims and could not find corroborating evidence. Instead, the evidence showed the Vickers herself made several graphic comments of a sexual nature to her supervisor and co-workers. The investigation also indicated that Vickers asked co-workers whether a previous worker won a $6 million sexual harassment claim and “if you could be fired if you lied.”
Based upon the investigation, Hyundai concluded that Vickers’s complaint was without merit, and that her comments to and about her supervisor violated Hyundai’s anti-harassment policies. Vickers’s employment was then terminated and she sued Hyundai alleging retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama dismissed Vickers’s claims and the Eleventh Circuit affirmed that decision. Among other things, the Eleventh Circuit found that Vickers did not raise an inference of discrimination, because she could not identify another employee who engaged in “nearly identical” conduct without suffering termination. Vickers tried to claim that her supervisor’s alleged harassing conduct was “nearly identical,” but the Eleventh Circuit disagreed:
[The supervisor] and Vickers were both alleged to have engaged in conduct of a sexually harassing nature, but only Vickers was alleged to have filed in bad faith a false report. The only support for the allegations against [the supervisor] was Vickers’ statement, while the allegations against Vickers were supported by statements of multiple witnesses. A reasonable employer could have believed the allegations against Vickers but not those against [the supervisor]. And we “do not sit to review the accuracy of the employer’s fact findings.”
Vickers, 2016 WL 1459112 at *3.
Vickers demonstrates the benefit of implementing a strong sexual harassment policy and thoroughly investigating all claims of sexual harassment. Well-enforced sexual harassment policies not only help protect employers when harassment actually occurs in the work place, but they also protect supervisors and employers from false harassment claims.