Oakland Accident Attorneys - Bay Area Accident Law Attorneys Based in Oakland

	February 7, 2006 Caltrans Will Pay $340,000 to Traffic Engineer for Workplace Harassment and Retaliation An Alameda County jury has awarded $345,300 to a female African-American civil engineer who endured two years of unrelenting harassment and retaliation after she complained that CHP officers and other Caltrans workers were viewing sexually explicit movies at Caltrans’ Transportation Management Center.1 The TMC, which occupies half of the sixth floor at Caltrans district headquarters in Oakland, has an open floor plan reminiscent of a NASA control room. The engineer, Eltora Charles, 42, worked at the TMC from its opening in the Spring of 2001 until September of 2003, when doctors removed her from work due to dangerously high blood pressure they say was brought about because of the stressful work environment. "They turned the night shift into the nightmare shift," said Jean Hyams, one of the attorneys who represented Charles at trial. Eyewitnesses testified that night-shift workers at the TMC watched sexually-explicit movies and listened to gangster rap during what State attorneys characterized as "downtime" on the graveyard shift. One witness said she saw pornography being viewed. The movies were played on a State-owned television and VCR which was supposed to be used to record traffic-related news segments. After Ms. Charles complained, first to her co-workers and then to management, she was subjected to escalating retaliation and intimidation, particularly from one clique of co-workers who ridiculed her with a litany of humiliating and derogatory comments. Following a month-long trial before Judge Bonnie Lewman Sabraw, several jurors wept openly in Court Friday afternoon as the Court clerk read the unanimous verdict finding Caltrans liable for hostile work environment harassment and retaliation. In reaction to the verdict, Ms. Charles said, "I hope my case helps others find the strength to stand up against this type of harassment on the job. It took a long time, but finally someone listened." The $345,300 damage award includes $300,000 for emotional distress and $45,300 in economic damages including wage loss and medical expenses. The Transportation Management Center is the Bay Area’s 24-hour, high-tech traffic management hub where Caltrans staff works along with California Highway Patrol officers and State contractors to manage Bay Area traffic, coordinate the response of various state agencies to traffic-related incidents, activate "Amber Alerts," and disseminate information to the public about Bay Area traffic through broadcast traffic updates and the Bay Area’s 511 telephonic traffic information system. To counter the State’s assertion that the CHP officers did not have enough work to keep them awake at night, Ms. Charles’ attorneys offered evidence to show that the same officers were neglecting their duty to remain watchful for possible terrorist activities as part of the nation’s Homeland Security program. CHP officers admitted on the witness stand that part of their job was to monitor feeds from surveillance cameras mounted on Bay Area bridges and at other locations where terrorists might strike. According to testimony and documents offered at trial, Ms. Charles was also intimidated from participating in a CHP investigation into sexual harassment allegations of a female State contractor who worked at the TMC.2 In the spring of 2003, as the time approached for Ms. Charles to be interviewed by a CHP investigator, co-workers intimidated and threatened Ms. Charles to keep her from stepping forward. According to Ms. Charles’ counsel Darci Burrell, "Caltrans gave the green light to the harassers. Management actually made the situation worse because of its complete dereliction of its duty to take employee complaints seriously. Here you had an employee who notified management over and over again about people who were crossing the line of appropriate workplace behavior in a big way. Yet Caltrans never bothered to investigate her complaints and not a single Caltrans employee has ever been disciplined." Ms. Charles was represented at trial by attorneys Jean Hyams and Darci Burrell of the Oakland-based law firm of Boxer & Gerson, LLP. [1] Charles v. State of California, et al., Alameda Superior Court No. RG03112609. Court filings related to this case may be accessed on-line through the Domain web service at http://www.alameda.courts.ca.gov/courts/. 2 This woman filed her own lawsuit in federal court against the State and her private employer. In a coincidence of timing, that case settled just two weeks ago for $100,000. U.S. EEOC v. Alltech, Inc., U.S.D.C. (N.D. Cal.) Case No. 04-3025 SBA. Contacts Jean Hyams Darci Burrell 510.835.8870 Lynx-Eyed Marketing Andrea Snedeker 510.919.2324 << BACK