Posted by denised in Library of Congress settles sexual harassment case
I don’t know why we’d expect better management at the Library of Congress than anywhere else – maybe it’s because “Library of Congress” sounds so officially intellectual we think they’d be smarter than that. Apparently not. The San Francisco Employment Lawyer reports…
The highest library in the land, the United States Library of Congress, agreed to pay out $250,000 to Theresa Papademetriou earlier this month following a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the longtime employee last August. In the suit, Papademetriou accused Dr. Rubens Medina, former senior librarian, of “persistent harassment of female
employees,” including verbal abuse and inappropriate touching.
She said that Medina had harassed at least seven women, to her knowledge, and that library officials did nothing to prevent the abuse or ease the hostile work environment, essentially ignoring complaints by library staff. With Medina’s harassment of coworkers increasing throughout 2006 and 2007, complaints from female staff members increased as well.
Papademetriou claims that library officials finally investigated Medina in 2008 and found that Medina had, indeed, behaved in an inappropriate manner towards female coworkers. However, Library of Congress officials failed to discipline him. In 2009, Papademetriou had had enough and filed the sexual harassment lawsuit in DC District Court.
As is par for the course when it comes to such settlements, Library officials are saying that the settlement is not an admission of guilt. Hmmm…I’m sure there’s a book somewhere on the shelves of the library that would dispute that sentiment. Read more about the settlement here.
