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Dec. 8--Female employees at a Crystal Lake company were sexually harassed and a teenage worker was fired because she complained about it, according to a complaint filed Wednesday.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the employment discrimination suit against the company, Fun In Motion Inc.
The allegations stem from a July 2004 complaint by a McHenry County girl who was 17 at the time. She said a male manager repeatedly made sexual comments about female employees and customers and inappropriately touched female employees.
She complained to a different manager and was fired three days later, said Ann Henry, an attorney for the EEOC. The suit was filed on behalf of other female employees who made similar complaints, Henry said.
"We'll determine during the course of litigation how many people there will be," Henry said. "The focus is on the company's failure to respond to the allegations," not the manager, whom Henry declined to name.
Fun In Motion operates eight retail stores in the Chicago area that sell recreational supplies. The company investigated the allegations and determined that the girl had made up the story because she was going to be fired, spokesman Alan Arden said.
"She was tardy several times for work; her performance wasn't good," Arden said. "The manager and his assistant talked about it and decided that they warned her several times and told her they were letting her go. She went home and made up a story."
The 26-year-old manager quit several months after the allegations surfaced for "other unrelated reasons" and moved his family out of state, Arden said.
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