Lois E. Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co
Federal and state governments have enacted laws to protect against discrimination and sexual harassment in the work place yet employers continue to discriminate and violate employee 's right to work in a non-hostile environment. We have chosen Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Company to examine class action status, discrimination and sexual harassment in the work place. This was the case first sexual harassment lawsuit to receive class action certification in 1988 defining the class “to include: all women who have applied for, or have been employed, in hourly positions...at any time since December 30, 1983” (U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, 1997). …show more content…
There is no reason for sexual harassment, and even though this law was in place when this lawsuit went to district court, it was still one of the biggest cases of its time and brought a lot of recognition to the fact that sexual discrimination was still taking place while management sat idly by and let it happen. Lois Jenson was diagnosed with PTSD shortly after she stopped working at the mine in 1992, and I am sure many other women are suffering from that as well as other mental ailments that will never truly be cured. Recommend what management might be able to do to pursue alternative resolutions (outside of court). With the sexual harassment law in place, management should take the proper steps to ensure all of its workers are properly educated on the matter with designated …show more content…
This is how Jenson and her fellow woman peers felt about working at Eveleth Taconite Co. These woman worked alongside many men who used abusive language, stalking, threats, intimidation, and sexual harassment. Jenson tried fighting for herself and others by filing a complaint, but that made matters worse because then the retaliation was slashed tires. This lead to Jenson asking for compensation for damages and mental anguish, but Eveleth Taconite Co. did not agree. Eventually Jenson left because of post-traumatic stress disorder. After years of fighting they finally came to an agreement and settled outside of court. Eveleth Taconite Co. should have handled the situation from the beginning by having classes and training on sexual harassment and holding people accountable to not have a hostile work environment. Instead they chose to hide it, and not treat all their employees especially the woman equally. That was a hard and expensive lesson they had to learn, but it allowed to show other companies to be aware of sexual harassment, and to know that isn’t something that should be