Q: Can I sue the CEO/Pres of the company I work for if I have him on recording insulting me for 10 minutes in a mgrs mtg?
The CEO/President of the company I work for is known for insulting people on a daily basis (employees, vendors, customers, etc) He will talk about someone's weight, race, etc without a care in the world and feels that it is ok because he is the owner and if you don't like it there's the door. I have him on recording during a managers meeting where he spent almost 10 minutes, talking about my weight, the race and weight of my husband, etc. I want to know do I have a case? Can I sue him for this? It has to stop, and I am not the only one he insults. It's not right and you should never have to come to work every day wondering how many times you will be insulted by the president of the company.
A:
General insults are not necessarily illegal unless the statements are directed or "targeted" at protected classes of employees. For example, taking turns calling people (one week women, the next week men, the week after minorities) lazy may not be illegal. But if a particular group or groups of protected class employees (for example minorities are always the ones called lazy) are always the targets then pervasive comments or even a few severe comments to such a group or group of minority employees may be unlawful. It's a matter of degree, frequency, severity; it all depends on the facts.
This requires a careful analysis of exactly what is being said and who those statements are directed at.
Severe or pervasive discrimination is against the law. Have you reported this to human resources? Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act covers employers with more than 15 employees. New York State Human Rights Law covers 4 or more employees. Gender or sex discrimination can be as few as 1 employee. Check your employee handbook and follow procedures for reporting discrimination.
Weight discrimination is more complicated. Are you being discriminated because of your association with a person who is morbidly obese? That usually, not always, means being about 100 pounds overweight due to a medical condition. Does someone in the medical field believe the obesity is morbid and due to some medical condition; often a thyroid disorder or possibly diabetes.
Consult an employment lawyer first. We will ask you exactly what has been said, who the comments have been directed to, how often, and how many people heard or saw the discrimination.
Workplace laws are not a civility code - that is almost a quote from the United States Supreme Court. Basically means that being mean or nasty is not "necessarily" illegal as long as everyone is a target. But when persons are singled out because they are members of protected classes of persons (medically obese or disabled persons), minority employees, or any other protected class then it becomes illegal. Are any employees treated better than you and if so why? Good luck.
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