IBM, ISOGON Corporation, Sued For $10 Million For Sexual Harassment and Retaliatory Discharge6 February 2006
IBM, ISOGON and Long Island-based Tetragon, LLC, a software development firm and Syosset residents Steven Barritz and Robert Barritz have been sued by a former employee for sexual harassment and retaliatory discharge. The suit claims damages of $10 million. Kathryn Fjeld, a former product manager for Isogon was terminated on April 15, 2005, after complaining of harassment and a barrage of bizarre, often sexually-charged e-mails, from Steven Barritz, a co-worker and son of Isogon principal Robert Barritz.
The action entitled : "Kathryn Fjeld v. Ibm, Isogon Corporation,
Tetragon L.L.C., Steven Barritz, Robert Barritz, Peter Kassan, Per Helberg, David Vardi And Steven Youchnow" was filed under New York County Supreme Court Index No. 100071/2006.
Ms. Fjeld, a product manager for Isogon had been recently touted by some in management as a future "CEO" of the company.
The complaint filed in New York County Supreme Court on January 4, 2006 details the pattern of demeaning and harassing conduct to which Ms. Fjeld was subject while employed at Isogon. Isogon was acquired and absorbed by IBM a few months after Ms. Fjeld was terminated. Isogon was aware of Ms. Fjeld's claim before the merger occurred.
As product manager Ms. Fjeld was often in contact with Steven Barritz and they had a friendly working relationship until Mr. Barritz began demanding a sexual relationship. Because defendant Steven Barritz had made it clear that he could cause plaintiff to lose her job, Ms. Fjeld was compelled to endure a continuous barrage of vulgar and sexually-humiliating advances and e-mails at the Isogon facilities. Said conduct created a hostile work environment. Ms. Fjeld retained digital copies of the offensive e-mail.
Ms. Fjeld was, and remains, married.
Despite working in the same office, Ms. Fjeld's job as a product manager for Isogon's VISTA and VISTA-PLUS were complicated by having to avoid contact with Steven Barritz. Her avoidance of the situation only made matters worse. Despite all the efforts of plaintiff to resist defendant Steven Barritz's advances, he persisted in making sexual advances. On Tuesday, November 12, 2004, angry that plaintiff had ignored his advances, Steven Barritz wrote in an e-mail: "Let's just say, I expect a phone call from you sometime this month. I also ask one other thing of you. That you let me know if you want to go to the dance thing on the 20th. Those are the two things I expect from you right now. I want a whole lot more, but, I'm trying to control myself, chill out, and re-direct this energy towards other parts of my life."
On November 5,2004 defendant Steven Barritz wrote plaintiff an e-mail which concluded with his disturbing opinion about the Mel Gibson film "Passion of the Christ": "PS Have you seen the Passion? It's great fun! You have to fast forward past the boring non-violent parts, of course. My favorite part is this one time they tear a huge chunk of flesh off near his rib cage. I almost came in my pants when they did that."
In a rambling message sent Tuesday, November 23, 2005, Steven Barritz wrote an e-mail stating:
"Maybe the reason you haven't called me about this, is because you don't want to be better friends with me. That's okay, I mean, you're certainly allowed to not be friends with me." Steven Barritz then added ominously "And friends or not, I'll still make sure you are treated right by Isogon, you don't have to worry about that."
At the end of the November 24, 2004 Steven Barritz sent an e-mail message with the following:
"PPS I think you should watch more porn." (Emphasis in the original)
Plaintiff continued to ask defendant Steven Barritz to stop e-mailing her. In response Ms.Fjeld responded via e-mail: "please do not write things like this to me." Instead, Steven Barritz increased the volume of offensive e-mails and in private conversations at Isogon's offices threatened to have her terminated from her job if she did not agree to spend more time with him.
Ms. Fjeld was unable to bear the continued harassment and informed defendant Steven Barritz that she would be making a formal complaint to Isogon management. In response, on February 20, 2005 Steven Barritz sent Karthryn Fjeld an e-mail with a 90 page attachment. It was the exit strategies manual for soon-to-be terminated Isogon executives: "From: Steve Barritz / Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2005 12:04 PM / To: Kathryn Fjeld / Subject: FW: the black book BP Exec Manual (for one on one).DOC " Executive Career Transition Counseling"" The threat was clear. If she complained about his advances then defendant Steven Barritz would use his access to his father to have her terminated.
Shortly after complaining to management about the conduct of Steven Barritz, Robert Barritz directed that she be terminated abruptly.
Ms. Fjeld is represented by the Law Offices of Gerald Bunting, 114 Old Country Road, Suite 616, Mineola, NY 11501 (516) 248-2366.
Source: emediawire
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