Do I have grounds to sue?
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Do I have grounds to sue?
I was harassed and publicly embarrassed in front of both co-workers and customers by one of the employees I worked with. These were not light insults, they were personal attacks that happened a multitude of times over a time period of 3 weeks. I was physically pushed by this worker on the floor while I was doing my job. I had gone to my store manager and she promised to help. 2 weeks went by and nothing happened. The harass continued and my other co-workers were so appalled by his behavior towards me that some of them even left. I already struggled with depression, anxiety, and insomnia however, this threw me far deeper into the pit. Eventually, I chose to just quit rather than deal with this almost all 40 hours of my work week. I was 18 and still am. Do I have grounds to sue or atleast get some form of justice? Nothing was done to the worker. No action, period, was taken by the manager.
The amount of therapy bills my parents have paid because of how detrimental
this was to my mental state, has been quite a big amount.
Asked on October 20, 2016 under Employment Labor Law, Indiana
Answers:
M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
In order for you to have a legal claim here for harrassment or a hostile work enviornment, your treatment must be the result of some form of actionable discrimination. In other words, it must be due to your race, religion, national origin, disability, age (over 40), etc. However ,you did not indicate that to be the case. Otherwise, while highly unprofessional, your treatment is not illegal. The only other protection you might have against this is if it violates the terms of a union agreement or employment contract.
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