Dive Brief:
- A San Francisco Bay Area construction contractor has agreed to settle a harassment charge for retaliation against a transgender worker, the Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission announced in a July 18 news release.
- Supervisors and co-workers at Fremont, California-based Superior Automatic Sprinkler Co. allegedly targeted the transgender worker with verbal harassment and physical threats due to his gender identity and sexual orientation, the agency said.
- The firm allegedly reassigned the worker to other jobsites in retaliation after he reported the harassment; he ultimately left the company because he did not feel safe enough to return to work, the EEOC said. Superior will pay monetary damages, revise its nondiscrimination policies and conduct employee training to prevent discrimination and harassment.
Dive Insight:
Superior Automatic Sprinkler Co., which installs, inspects, services, repairs and consults on fire sprinkling systems, according to its website, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The EEOC has targeted racial, sexual and gender-oriented harassment in the construction industry, where the appearance of nooses and other threatening behavior on jobsites has gained media attention in recent years.
In June, the agency released an anti-harassment guide for contractors to help them combat bias-motivated events and the creation of hostile work environments on jobsites.
The guide followed a report in June 2023 detailing the continued prevalence of hate and bias on building jobsites, noting that construction stands out from other industries for “egregious incidents of harassment.”