- A US appeals court has ruled that loud, obnoxious music played in the workplace may violate sex discrimination laws.
- A 2020 lawsuit against the Nevada company alleges that complaints about offensive music were ignored.
- A court ruled this week that the lawsuit was wrongfully dismissed.
If you listen to loud music with vulgar or offensive lyrics at work, you may be harassing your co-workers and you could be held legally accountable for sexism.
That is the opinion of Judge M. Margaret McCune of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. McCune wrote an opinion Earlier this week, it announced that a lawsuit against S&S Activewear, which claims the warehouse company’s management ignored complaints about offensive music, was wrongfully dismissed.
original Lawsuit, filed as a class action lawsuit in 2020 A lawsuit filed by a group of former employees, consisting of seven women and one man, led the Court of Appeals panel to conclude that “sexually graphic, violently misogynistic music” was played from at least five speakers in a large warehouse. It will be permitted in the future in response to the fact that it was certified that there is a possibility that legally considered grounds for allegations of harassment.
The original complaint cited artists such as Eminem, Lil Wayne and Too Short as examples of music played that many employees found offensive, particularly because of its vulgar language and songs depicting violence against women. artists are mentioned.
One of the songs mentioned is Eminem’s 2000 hit song “Stan”. The song is about a die-hard fan sending increasingly hostile letters to his hero Eminem, finally taking the rap star’s music too literally, driving himself with his pregnant girlfriend off a bridge. I’m drawing until I drop it and kill it.
The lawsuit alleges that an employee’s complaint to management about loud music being played in a warehouse in Nevada was ignored.
The complaint alleges that the company ignored its sexual harassment policy by allowing the music to play. The lawsuit also alleges that the company’s human resources manager instructed at least one woman to ignore music, employees shared pornographic videos and images, and made inappropriate comments to several female employees. It also alleges that it fostered an environment full of harassment, gesticulating, etc.
The lawsuit alleges that S&S Activewear management failed to adequately protect its female employees from sexual harassment because they continued to play music, and that music was acceptable to motivate employees. claims to have done so.
Justice McCune wrote: Judgment on Wednesday He argued that the lower court had erred in granting S&S’s motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that “it does not amount to sex discrimination” because the music is offensive to both men and women. McCune disagrees with this conclusion, saying that harassment does not have to be directed at a specific individual for it to be considered harassment, making violations impossible even if multiple genders are offended by the same content. I wrote not. Title 7 Civil Rights Actthe anti-discrimination law on which the original lawsuit was based.
“Whether sung, yelled, whispered, played on loudspeakers, or broadcast face-to-face, sexist adjectives can be offensive, making the workplace a hostile environment that violates Part 7. ,” McCune wrote.
Notably, the district court dismissed only music-based harassment claims and said it would allow consideration of other harassment and harmful workplace claims. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reportedly backed claims by employees who said they had been harassed and said it was a concern that offensive music was being played in the workplace. wall street journal.
Ninth Circuit judges cited several past cases that established that gender-specific offensive words like “bitch” amounted to gender-based harassment, affecting morale. The words and phrases didn’t have to be directed at a specific person to give. Talk about work or offend people. Therefore, when music containing that language is played loud enough to be heard by dozens of employees, it can be grounds for workplace harassment allegations.
A court ruled in another case in which a female employee filed and won a Title VII lawsuit against her employer because her male co-worker blared a “vulgar morning show” on the radio for everyone in the office to hear. , citing other cases in which women have won. I was offended by sexual content at work, but it wasn’t directed at me specifically.
S&S Activeware did not immediately respond to a request for comment prior to publication.