UNITED HEALTHCARE OF FLORIDA TO PAY $1.8 MILLION FOR SAME-SEX HARASSMENT AND RETALIATION

EEOC Settles Suit Charging Male Former Regional Vice President With Victimizing Male Former Senior Accounts Executive

MIAMI  – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced that United  HealthCare of Florida, Inc. will pay $1.8 million to settle a same-sex harassment  and retaliation lawsuit charging that the male former regional vice president  of key accounts subjected a male former top senior account executive to  repeated verbal sexual harassment in Sunrise, Fla.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit in  U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division (Case  No. 06-61483-CIV-MOORE/GARBER), after the high ranking senior account executive  complained several times to upper management, United HealthCare retaliated  against him by subjecting him to discipline and denying him stock options and  commissions. The account executive even  complained to the former and current chief executive officers of the employer’s  parent company (United HealthGroup, Inc.) who did not take remedial action to  correct the unlawful discrimination. The  top executive could no longer tolerate the retaliatory conduct, so he quit, the  EEOC said.

The  three-year consent decree settling the suit requires United HealthCare of  Florida to pay $1.8 million to the former employee in back pay, damages, and  his private attorneys’ fees and costs.  United HealthCare must also distribute a new anti-harassment policy to  all of its employees in Florida; train all its employees (including managers)  at the Sunrise facility on federal employment dis­crimination laws including  sexual harassment and retaliation; post a notice of resolution of the lawsuit;  and report to EEOC twice annually about any harassment or retaliation  complaints based on harassment, and the actions taken by United HealthCare to  resolve such complaints.

“The EEOC will continue its  comprehensive efforts to enforce its mission of eradicating sexual harassment  in the workplace – whether the victim is a male or female, an hourly worker or  an executive,” said EEOC’s Miami District Director Federico Costales.

Nora E.  Curtin, regional attorney of the Miami District Office, added, “Employers  cannot disregard a complaint of sexual harassment because it comes from a male  employee. All employees are entitled to  a workplace where they are not targeted because of their gender.”

Sexual  harassment charge filings by men (reported to the EEOC and state/local agencies  nationwide) have trended upward from 9% of all sexual harassment charges in  Fiscal Year 1992 to 15% in FY 2006.

The EEOC is  responsible for enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment dis­crim­ination  based on race, color, gender (including sexual harassment and pregnancy),  religion, national origin, age, disability and retaliation. Further information about the EEOC is  available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.