A Wyoming trucking company owner is facing an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit alleging that he sexually harassed female truck drivers.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, accuses Big Piney-based Waller’s Trucking Company owner Norman Waller of sexually harassing multiple female employees, including a driver he hired in February 2017. The driver was allegedly subjected to near-daily sexual comments.
“Waller’s stream of sexually harassing comments was frequently made in front of [the driver’s] colleagues and other drivers, in-person, and over inter-truck CB radio,” the lawsuit says.
Waller did not immediately respond to a FreightWaves inquiry about the allegations and lawsuit.
The suit alleges that Waller made the following comments, among others:
- “Too bad you’re not wearing a skirt with no panties.”
- “Make sure you wear a tank top so your boobies show.”
- “You need to wear booby shirts so I can get more business.”
Waller is accused of making sexual propositions to the driver, including saying he would cut a hole in the wall if they did not have adjoining rooms on overnight jobs and asking her for a good morning kiss, the complaint says. The driver said she feared for her safety and took some of Waller’s comments as sexual threats.
According to the suit, Waller in 2018 bought the driver a vibrating toothbrush and told her she could use it for any body part. He in 2019 publicly referred to the driver as a “lot lizard” in a meeting, which is a derogatory term for a sex worker.
Waller’s behavior prompted a male employee to speak up for the female driver, the suit says.
When the driver reported the incidents to the human resources representative, who was Waller’s wife, she “simply laughed,” according to the complaint.
The driver quit her job when she asked Waller for the day off to attend her teenage daughter’s graduation. Waller messaged the driver that he would send her daughter a lace nightgown as a gift but would probably “get the pee slapped out of me,” the suit says.
Waller is also accused of harassing another female employee, whom he allegedly instructed to “wear booby shirts” and to “dress sexy.” He also commented on the employee’s breasts and asked to see them.
When the employee publicly spoke out against the harassment, the suit says Waller scheduled her for fewer shifts. She quit her job in October 2019.
“Federal law prohibits sexual harassment in the workplace, regardless of whether the offender is the owner of the business, a co-worker, a customer or a resident,” Regional Attorney Mary Jo O’Neill of the EEOC’s Phoenix District Office said in a statement. “The EEOC has pursued, and will continue to pursue, charges of sexual harassment against employers regardless of the status of the offender. Employers have a legal duty to stop sexual harassment and to protect their workers from such egregious sexual harassment in the workplace.”
The driver is seeking back pay and additional, unspecified compensation.
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