A Westmoreland County woman is suing her former employer, claiming that she was fired because she would not give into his sexual advances.
Marie Schaub filed a lawsuit against Fox Chapel Sea Ray Inc., doing business as Fox Chapel Marine Sales and Service, on Nov. 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, citing retaliation and hostile work environment.
Schaub, while working for Fox Chapel Sea Ray from February 2012, until Nov. 18. 2014, as a receptionist and training to be a salesperson, claims she was repeatedly subjected to unwanted and unwelcome touching and sexual comments from member of the company’s management, the complaint states.
According to the complaint, beginning around May 2014, the co-worker touched her buttocks at work. She claims that she repeatedly told another manager about the action. However, the action, she claims, escalated into that person then groping her buttocks at work.
In further escalation, the alleged assailant at work approached her from behind, Schaub claims, and put his hand down her shirt to grab her breast on around late October 2014. Schaub then told the general manager, who told her that the employee as a "good guy" and that he would "get to the bottom of it," the complaint states. Five days later, Schaub claims, she was fired without reason.
Schaub seeks to be reinstated to her position, front pay, lost benefits, compensatory and punitive damages, and court costs. She is represented by Pittsburgh-based attorney Samuel J. Cordes of Samuel J. Cordes and Associates.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania case number 2:15-cv-01443-TFM