Tuckner, Sipser: Battery Park Swim & Fitness Sued for Sex Discrimination & Retaliation

NEW YORK, Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/ — Courtney McCallion and Maggie Alexander, former employees of Battery Park Swim & Fitness, a TFC Partners/New Fitness Concepts health club, have filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, alleging sex-based discrimination, as well as “retaliation” as a result of being fired following their complaints of sexual harassment in the workplace.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091202/NY20164 )

McCallion’s complaint against the health and fitness conglomerate, states that she was subjected to “an unwelcome and demeaning sexualized work environment.” The complaint describes a workplace rife with unwelcome sexual banter and activity, as Club Manager David Anglin is accused of a plethora of sex-based offenses, from regularly offering to “administer full body massages” to his female staff, to “humiliating” Alexander by publicly disparaging her breast size, asking another employee if he wanted to have sex with Alexander, to “snapping” McCallion’s bra strap and commenting on her “cleavage,” the complaint paints a disturbing picture of a workplace where female employees are objectified as sexual objects and valued based on their willingness to “figure out a way to get along with” Anglin, or be fired.

In addition to McCallion and Alexander, three other Battery Park staffers also formally complained to Human Resources of the severely sexist and homophobic workplace environment, including an allegation that Anglin derided the Human Resource Director as “one mad lesbian,” among other pejorative comments based on her perceived sexual orientation.

In response to the complaints of five female employees of this ongoing abusive and sophomoric behavior, Battery Park threatened to “replace everyone on staff” if they persisted in seeking workplace equality. Within months of filing the harassment complaint against Anglin, the court complaint alleges that all five female employees were discharged in retaliation for filing the grievance. In Alexander and McCallion’s cases, following their sexual harassment complaint, Battery Park fired them for reasons including “offering sex and drugs” to members, allegations that the lawsuit deems “ludicrous, fallacious and pretextual.” Only Anglin was not terminated.

McCallion and Alexander are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Plaintiffs’ counsel is the law firm of Tuckner, Sipser, Weinstock & Sipser, LLP, a full service Women’s Rights in the Workplace law boutique in NYC. For more information about the case, or to obtain a copy of the state court complaint, contact Jack Tuckner, William Sipser or Antonia Donato at 212.766.9100, or at jtuckner@womensrightsny.com, wsipser@womensrightsny.com or adonato@womensrightsny.com, respectively.

SOURCE Tuckner, Sipser, Weinstock & Sipser, LLP