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The counter worker quit her job at Professional Touch Dry Cleaning & Apparel Repairs after two years because the owner “subjected her to a hostile working environment by openly disclosing, discussing, and deriding her sexual orientation,” state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said.
Throughout her employment there, the owner – whom Grewal didn’t identify by name – “repeatedly made discriminatory comments about the fact that she is a lesbian in front of other employees and customers,” the attorney general said.
Investigators from the state Division on Civil Rights (DCR) not only interviewed several current and former employees, Grewal said: They also spoke with customers.
All “corroborated the complainant’s claims,” he said.
“One former employee recalled that the owner made a disgusted facial expression while telling her that the complainant is gay,” the attorney general said. “A customer described an instance in which he observed the owner mocking the complainant behind her back by making a lewd gesture alluding to her sexual orientation.”
The state civil rights division found probable cause to pursue either criminal or civil complaints against the owner for violating the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD), Grewal said.
“There simply is no place in the workplace for…inappropriate remarks about an individual’s sexual orientation or other forms of harassment,” he said. “Employers have a duty to ensure a discrimination and harassment-free work environment.”
State anti-discrimination law prohibits discrimination and harassment in employment based on an individual’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, or other protected characteristics.
The owner of Professional Touch has denied the allegations, Grewal said.
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