Branford-based clothing manufacturer FYC International will pay $80,000 to settle a sexual harassment civil lawsuit against three workers.
The three women filed a lawsuit against FYC International Inc. through the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2014, alleging that the warehouse manager regularly made inappropriate sexual comments and advances on them. The company is no longer in operation but must provide safeguards to prevent future discrimination if it re-emerges, in addition to the financial settlement, the EEOC announced Friday.
One of the named workers in the suit, Sandi Victorio, detailed her experiences with harassment in the Independent in October 2014, with legal aid lawyer James Bhandary-Alexander.
Victorio said she feared her boss would try to rub her back or grab her as she worked in the warehouse, where she started working in 2010 packing and shipping dresses. She said asked her to have sex with him for money and asked about her personal life, insinuating she had romantic or sexual relationships with other female workers in the warehouse.
The warehouse manager’s behavior encouraged other men in the office to sexually harass their few female coworkers, in part by watching pornographic videos at their stations, Victorio said in 2014.
Judge Vanessa Bryant signed the decree settling the suit March 8. After first trying to reach a settlement through an informal mediation process in July 2014, the EEOC filed the suit in Connecticut’s U.S. District Court.
