Ernst & Young’s New York division seems to be a hotbed of sexual harassment, which has led to a bipartisan group of 67 New York state lawmakers to pen an open letter.

In the letter, the company was slammed for its “oppressive” response to a sexual harassment and discrimination suit filed last year by Karen Ward, a former partner at the company.

Ward’s suit alleges that “women face “egregious” sexual harassment and pay discrimination at the company,” with lewd comments about their body parts pretty much par for the course.

Over to the Daily Beast:

Ward’s supervisor at various times told her that she was “really hot,” that he loved her “great big round boobs,” and that she had a “nice ass,” according to her 21-page Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint filed at the time.

Ward alleged that it was “regular practice” for her male coworkers “to brag that they were able to situate their chairs in such a way that they were able to see a junior female employee’s vagina, or, as they disgustingly referred to it, her ‘snatch.’”

As is to be expected, Ernst & Young has denied the claims, calling them “unsubstantiated,” “unfounded and baseless”.

Par for the course, really.

Ward is not alone, with another former partner, Jessica Casucci, filing a similar complaint in April last year:

…one of Casucci’s partners allegedly groped her while telling her, “I’ve wanted to fuck you for so long,” “I know that you want to fuck me,” and that the “sex would be amazing,”

Narrator’s voice – it would not.

Again, Ernst & Young refutes these claims, emphasising that it’s “committed to a workplace free of discrimination and harassment of any kind”.

New York state Senators Liz Krueger and Alessandra Biaggi have come down particularly hard on the company, pointing out that it is “2019, not 1959, and it is simply unacceptable to perpetuate a culture of harassment and discrimination at work”.

Hear hear.

Those senators and lawmakers are also outraged about the costs incurred by Ward along the way:

At issue this week…is the $185,000 Ward has been charged just to have her claims heard in forced arbitration. According to Ward’s attorneys, had her case been heard in court, she would have only had to pay $450 in court costs to date.

Ward and her attorney Michael Willemin last week filed a declaratory judgment seeking to invalidate her arbitration agreement with Ernst & Young, arguing that no victim of sexual harassment or discrimination should be made to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars just to have their claims heard.

“By limiting her recourse to forced arbitration at a personal cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, you are effectively silencing her and sending a message to your other employees that their claims will not be given a fair hearing and that they will have to pay exorbitant costs to simply have their claims heard,” the letter, signed by the lawmakers, said.

Props to Ward for sticking to her guns, and doing her best to stick it to the man.

When asked by the Daily Beast to comment on the open letter, Ernst & Young remained silent.

[source:dailybeast]