No boundaries: Lawsuit says employer ignored woman’s claims of sexual harassment
An Horry County woman is suing her former employer after they failed to punish a worker who sexually harassed her, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.
A male employee, at the time a coworker at Shoreline Behavioral Health Services, continuously sexually harassed the woman during her nine months working with him, the suit claims. It also states that Shoreline management did nothing to reprimand the man after this behavior was reported.
Shoreline Behavioral Health Services in Conway provides medical and counseling services to people struggling with addiction.
Shoreline declined to comment on the suit.
Harassment included demeaning, derogatory and sexually suggestive statements, according court documents. Another incident detailed in the lawsuit includes the male employee groping and trying to kiss the woman in the employee break room.
When she reported the harassment to her bosses they told her “they would try to talk to (him) about boundaries,” but he was not written up or reprimanded, according to the suit.
The woman was fired from her position as a counselor in November of last year, the suit claims, for reporting the harassment.
Shoreline receives benefits from government contracts and the suit lists Horry County Commission on Alcohol and Drugs as a co-defendent. It is not clear whether the man still works at Shoreline but he is no longer listed on its staff directory.
