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Benefits June 28, 2006
Jury Awards $1.7M to Victim of 'Motivational' Spanking
June 28, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A jury in Fresno,
California awarded $1.7 million to an Alarm One Inc. employee
who sued for sexual harassment and battery after several
workplace spanking incidents.
Reported by Rebecca Moore
HR.BLR.com reports that Janet Orlando said she was spanked with a yard sign on three separate occasions in front of jeering coworkers.
The spankings were part of motivational practices at the company’s Fresno office, HR.BLR.com said. The company would have sales teams compete with the winners poking fun at the losers, according to the news report. Tactics included throwing pies at the losers, feeding them baby food, making them wear diapers and spanking them with a competitor’s yard sign (See Workplace Spanking Victim Asks for $1.2M Jury Verdict ).
Orlando claimed that during the spankings, the sales force would heckle her with comments such as “Bend over, baby,” and “You’ve been a bad girl.”
The company said Orlando was a willing participant during the motivational meetings and never complained about being spanked, according to the news report. It also claimed Orlando abruptly quit her job, not because of the spankings, but because she was upset about being passed over for promotion.
The jury’s award includes $500,000 in compensatory damages and $1.2 million in punitive damages.