Complaining workers fired, suit contends

A nursing home in Malvern was sued Friday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, accused of firing female employees who complained about sexual harassment.

Happy Valley Health and Rehabilitation violated federal law when it failed to address the women’s complaints and when it terminated them for complaining of harassment, the EEOC charged in the suit filed in the Hot Springs Division of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.

In the lawsuit, the EEOC said it received reports of harassment as early as May 2016 and as recently as May of this year. The agency said it was “common knowledge among Happy Valley employees that if one complained about sexual harassment, the company would terminate the employee. Rather than punishing the harasser, the company would punish those who complained. As a result, several employees decided not to report the harassment for fear of losing their jobs.”

The lawsuit, citing civil rights violations, was filed after attempts to resolve the matter through a conciliation process failed. The suit seeks monetary relief in the form of back pay, compensatory and punitive damages, compensation for lost benefits and an injunction against future discrimination.

“While the #MeToo movement has brought sexual harassment to the forefront in the media, the EEOC has been working to combat this type of discrimination since the Commission’s inception and the issuance of guidelines in 1980 stating that sexual harassment is prohibited under Title VII,” Delner Franklin-Thomas, director of the agency’s Memphis district office, said in a news release. The office covers Arkansas, Tennessee and parts of Mississippi.

Jacqueline Kilgore, the owner of the facility, wasn’t in the office Friday when a reporter called.