One of the duties of a Transportation Union Workers Supervisor is to keep track of assaults and other unlawful behavior against bus drivers. However, in a recent case in New York, it is the supervisor himself who is being accused of unlawful behavior.
A 45-year-old female bus operator has charged her boss, a TWU 100 union head, with sexual harassment. The woman has admitted that both she and the man had a two-year affair that lasted until August 2012. She claims that when she ended the relationship, the union head began harassing her and even attempted to get her fired after she refused to sleep with him.
The woman has requested an order of protection against the man and a Bronx family court has agreed to the request. The legal counsel for the union head has also agreed to the modified temporary protection order. The order prohibits the man from contacting the bus operator except for work-related purposes. In the woman’s request, she detailed how the man menaced her at work, stalked her and posted intimate pictures of them online without her permission.
A person close to the woman claimed that the union head has made the woman’s life a nightmare after she broke the affair off. She stated that the man kept calling mutual friends and family in an attempt to contact her. She adds that even after the woman’s lawyer wrote a note to the union head telling him to stop, he still persisted.
Sexual harassment is a serious matter. Besides creating a hostile working environment, it is a serious affront to the civil rights of an employee. Nassau County workers should also realize that harassment can sometimes come in the form of sexual innuendo. But regardless of the form, a victim of sexual harassment at the workplace should file the proper legal action against the perpetrator to stop the harassment and hold that person liable.
Source: New York Daily News, “Transit union supervisor accused of sexually harassing bus operator,” Dennis Slattery and Ginger Adams Otis, Jan. 29, 2014