Thursday, May 28, 2009

Stay Classy, Duane Reade

There are some times when you can't even make fun. Glad to hear the suit was settled, though.

From NYTimes, a Duane Reade Sexual Harassment Lawsuit:

Duane Reade Settles U.S. Harassment Suit

Updated, 12:14 p.m. | Duane Reade, the drugstore chain with more than 200 stores in the New York area, will pay $240,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming a pattern of sexual harassment and retaliation at one of its Bronx stores, the commission announced on Wednesday.

At the store, employees faced sexual harassment and pregnancy harassment, the commission said. “The store manager, Madiaw Diaw, frequently made vulgar remarks about women’s private parts, sexually propositioned female employees, made lewd comments about their pregnancies and bodies, assigned unfavorable job duties to pregnant employees and repeatedly grabbed female employees, including grabbing their buttocks,” the commission said in a statement.

Employees who complained and filed discrimination charges were retaliated against by being subjected to further harassment by supervisors, the commission said.

The suit was filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan after the commission tried to reach a voluntary settlement with Duane Reade.

“This settlement achieves the E.E.O.C.’s objectives by providing appropriate relief to the victims of sexual harassment while implementing appropriate measures to prevent this kind of violation in the future,” said Spencer H. Lewis, director of the commission’s New York district office. In addition to money damages, the suit had sought improvements in training and other policies.

Duane Reade said in a statement:

Duane Reade will not tolerate sexual harassment of any kind and is committed to a safe and professional working environment for all of its employees. As such, Duane Reade has implemented stringent sexual harassment and non-discrimination polices throughout all levels of the Company, including its stores. Duane Reade requires all new and existing employees to complete mandatory training in the Company’s sexual harassment and non-discrimination policies on an annual basis.


Thanks to DJ_Darko for that tip!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I was grossly inconvenienced and harmed when I worked in Duane Reade in 2007. If you ever can be subjected to sexual, religious, verbal, emotional harassment, do not report to any supervisor or manager. It just makes the situation worse. Make a direct complaint to EEOC, Attorney General, Labour Union without any delay.

The people work there and the managers are highly unprofessional when they deal with harassment. They have no idea about what they are talking about. I may write their words in a comedy magazine to show how complete idiots they are.

Anonymous said...

If you need more fun....

Some direct words of Pharmacy District Manager--Wesam Abdrabouh.

Call me any time (12 am) ..

Did you have many boyfriends?

Do you bring men to home?

You did this to store, you will do the same thing to your husband (during an idiot meeting after I harassed in their stores by complete idiot store managers)

Stay in touch...You don't make enough money, I need someone who makes money... How about your friend who works in the bank. Why don't you want me to communicate with her. (He was talking about my friend who works in a bank--this happened after I left working in their stores)

Wesam Abdrabouh brought his mom to the store, and he emotionally harassed me by making phone calls, sent email and phone messages from different phones and email addresses which showed his interest in me. He used my islamic beliefs to be close to me and he just denied his inconsistent behaviors in front of his collagues. He accused me of seeing hallucination not to be fired from Duane Reade.

Ibne Wesam needs to train his mind in western standards...Here isn't a village in Egypt. You have donkeys over there, and treat women like a merchant...You can't do this when you work in company which you don't own...You should better resign and go back to Cairo to build an animal kingdom. Take pharmacy tech, Karmen with you before she enters her menapouse time. HAHAHA...Now you are entertaining me.

The words of Greg Calvano;

You are in favor of your people, you pray..you are muslim...(He told me this instead of looking at how i was harassed in their stores, just because of being on time, doing my job...) Greg Calvano, you should better know about the country policy you work in. You aren't living in small polish village which you can react whichever way you want. I can pray or believe in whatever i want. You should educate yourself beyond your ronkokoma high school diploma.

Go to Toilet when this happens to you. (When store manager closed my cash register, sent me away before my schedule finishes, called her friends outside of the store to harass verbally, cursed because of my being muslim..etc.) Ex-pharmacy service manager, Eleni Trifos... What happened to you, Eleni Trifos..It is clear you aren't a good asset for any company including Walgreens...You were fired, did you go to Toilet and cry over your dispositioning. Your open breast and mini-skirt with scoda legs don't serve for any company. You don't have any management skills and learn how to talk and evaluate a situation.

Anonymous said...

Did anyone google Wesam Abrabouh of Duane Reade? If no, you should, he was arrested by having viagra in his pocket in New Jersey.This man is a pathetic liar.

Anonymous said...

A pharmacist district manager sexually harassed a young woman in 2007 in the name of "islam" at Duane Reade and he accused this young woman of seeing halluciniation and being a retarded. This young woman whom he labeled as a retarded person is now working at one of the most prestigious universities in the world and advising to a high profile diplomat. I wouldn’t use services of a company who doesn’t have any moral ground and recruiting questionable characters like an Islamist pharmacist district manager who was arrested by having Viagra in his pocket.

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