Sexual Favoritism and Hostile Work Environment

[quitter]

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: California
A married supervisor is having an affair with a subordonate. Supervisor admitted affair to owner of the company, (because owner received numerous complaints about love birds conduct at work) Every employee has recently been told we have to work the set shift hours ... no exceptions. No overtime either. Well "girlfriend" comes and goes as her home schedule dictates, day to day. She may come in an hour earlier and leave an hour later. If she decides she needs to leave before putting in her eight hours she will tell boyfriend that she will be back on the next shift to make it up. She often ends up putting in overtime. Others have asked to do the same because they need to either drop off or pick up their kids a school. They've been told that they have to work regular hours no exceptions. Supervisor is very intimidating. He will publicly berate employees to keep them "in their place" Girlfriend can do no wrong even though she constantly makes major mistakes. For instance she lost some very important papers, supervisor re-did all paper work and passed them off as the originals (never lost) When employees ask how come "girlfriend" gets to work different hours and is not treated like the rest of the employees, supervisor says mind your own bussiness.
We have a new HR that is off site. Many employees have called in thier complaints.HR then calls the owner. We can't tell HR our names because supervisor WILL retaliate. Supervisor and owner have been friends for a long time, so owner tends to react in favor of supervisor. Athough they did send supervisor to a one day class on how to be a good supervisor. It help for maybe one week. Everyday the hostility seems to grow. It's not funny but everyone is saying that the only way to be treated fairly is to sleep with the supervisor. Could this be a case for sexual favoritism that is promoting a hostile work environment? I know it's a matter of time before somebody gets physical. this is a very volotile situation.

[cbg]

A very weak maybe, and only because of where you are located. There was a case decided by the CA Supreme Court (I think) a few years back that addressed this, though I don't recall the name of the case and I'm not even sure if it still stands or if it was later overturned. If you were in any other state it would be a solid, "Unfair but not illegal". See what a local attorney has to say.

[quitter]

Thank You CBG
There's alot more to it, but I wanted to get the jist of it down to see if there might be a case.

[Betty3]

A very weak maybe, and only because of where you are located. There was a case decided by the CA Supreme Court (I think) a few years back that addressed this, though I don't recall the name of the case and I'm not even sure if it still stands or if it was later overturned. If you were in any other state it would be a solid, "Unfair but not illegal". See what a local attorney has to say.

I don't remember name of case either but there was a case in Ca. (maybe one you are thinking of but it's some different) where the supervisor in that case was involved with *several* women in the office and those women got preferential treatment over those who were not involved with the supervisor. The court saw this as close to a quid pro quo case where the only way to get ahead was to sleep with the supervisor even though the supervisor never came right out and said he would grant A if an employee did B.

[cbg]

That's the case I'm thinking of. It's not exactly on point and as I said, I'm not even sure if it still stands or if it was overturned. But it's all the poster has. In the main, favoritism is not illegal; nor does what is described meet the legal definition of a hostile work environment.

[Betty3]

I don't know if the case still stands either - it may have been overturned though I have no info that it was. (I don't remember name of case.)

Agree with cbg. Betty3

[quitter]

CBG and Betty3,
Is the case you're thinking of Miller vs California department of corrections? Or something like that?

[Betty3]

Yes, it is - thank you. Very good. Here is a link:

http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/...al/S114097.PDF