A recent Sacramento Bee exposé reveals that some state employees remain on the payroll after multiple accusations of sexual harassment.
Employees should feel safe in the workplace — particularly if they are working for the government. Yet a recent article by the Sacramento Bee shows that for many California state employees, the opposite is true.
The Sacramento Bee reviewed 107 cases of sexual harassment involving state employees. It found that in some cases, the accused harassers had been permitted to move to different state agencies — with some even seeing promotions or an increase in pay as a result. In most cases, the state of California paid their legal fees and the settlements that resulted from lawsuits filed against these accused harassers. In these 107 cases, at least one-third of the alleged victims either resigned or were forced to leave state employment as part of the settlement. Some settlement agreements required them to promise to never reapply for state employment.
One example cited by the Sacramento Bee is current Department of Motor Vehicles employee Dennis B. Kellogg, a 28 year veteran of state employment. Mr. Kellogg has been accused of sexual harassment in three separate lawsuits filed by three female state employees and one male state employee. These lawsuits arose from incidents when Mr. Kellogg was employed at the Department of Rehabilitation and the Department of Parks and Recreation. He allegedly would start personal conversations about sex, touch and grab subordinates, make sexually explicit comments and stare lewdly at his co-workers’ bodies. The state settled two of the lawsuits for a total of $841,500, and moved him to different departments.
According to a California harassment attorney, one reason that many of these alleged serial harassers do not lose their jobs is due to California’s civil service rules. Under these rules, if an employee gains permanent civil service status by passing probation, he or she has a right to return to that job if their next civil service job does not work out. Unless an employee is fired for cause, he or she maintains this “return status.” This allows many alleged harassers to remain in state employment as long as they are not terminated “for cause.” It also has the potential to subject future colleagues to alleged harassment.
Of course, the state of California has terminated the employment of some employees who have sexually harassed coworkers — and some of these wrongdoers have even been required to pay part of the lawsuit settlement costs out of their own pockets. However, the Sacramento Bee article makes it clear that there are far too many cases of employees with credible sexual harassment allegations against them being allowed to remain in state employment.
While state employees deserve protection from being unjustly terminated, that should not be interpreted to allow them to harass their colleagues without consequence. It is important that all employees be treated fairly — and protected from harm.
The law firm of PLBH represents clients who have been subjected to harassment in the workplace. Contact us today at (800) 435-7542 or info@plblaw.com to schedule a free initial consultation today and learn more about how we can help you.