Alleged sexual harassment costs an O’Reilly Auto Parts store in Orlando $165,000
Legally, O’Reilly Auto Parts denies that an Orlando store manager incessantly sexually harassed female employees — including grabbing the crotch of one and pinning her to a table. Also, it denies that other managers laughed off women’s complaints and joined in retaliating against them.
Also, legally, O’Reilly has paid $10,000 in back pay and $155,000 in compensatory damages to three female employees to settle an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sexual harassment suit that alleges all of the above.
The consent decree settling the EEOC case ordered O’Reilly to pay $10,000 in back pay and $117,000 in compensatory damages to India McCoy; $23,000 in damages to Zavonia Akins; and, $15,000 in damages to Arnacia Symond.
‘I can touch you if I want.’
All three women worked at O’Reilly store No. 4321, which the chain’s website says is at 6100 W. Colonial Dr. in Orlando, according to the lawsuit. Each pointed to commercial section manager Tracy Clark as the lead harasser.
McCoy claimed Clark made several references to oral sex, the least coarse being: “Follow me to my house so I can eat you.”
The lawsuit alleges the harassment was so pervasive that “Customers called the store and/or the corporate office to complain about Clark after witnessing him touch female employees in a sexual manner.”
When Akins spoke to Clark himself, the lawsuit said, “Clark would respond by making comments like, “I can touch you if I want.”
After McCoy took her complaints about Clark to the corporate level in April 2016, the suit says the men O’Reilly sent to the store to investigate that May laughed at McCoy during the interview.
Also, “the investigation was not kept confidential.”
Afterwards, the lawsuit said, Clark “sabotaged [McCoy’s] work, sending her on deliveries with the correct invoice but wrong parts; and Clark caused [McCoy’s] schedule and hours to change.”
Akins was fired in January 2016 after telling a manager she wanted a transfer to a section away from Clark’s harassment. McCoy resigned Aug. 1, 2016. Symond, who said Clark grabbed her behind while she worked, “did not report or complain about the harassment because the store was male-dominated, and she was afraid.”
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