An Appellate panel has upheld a finding by the Division on Civil Rights that a New Brunswick electrical contracting firm unlawfully subjected one of its employees to racial slurs and sexually harassing remarks in the workplace, and must pay her $25,000 for pain and humiliation.
In addition to upholding the Division’s order that Dane Construction and its owner Pat Buckley pay former employee Shi-Juan Lin $25,000, the Appellate panel also upheld a $5,000 statutory penalty imposed by Division Director Craig T. Sashihara. An order that Dane Construction reimburse the State $31,000 in legal fees and costs also was upheld.
Lin, of Carteret, was hired as a bookkeeper and secretary by Dane Construction in February 2008. Her employer was aware of her Chinese heritage and also knew that Lin’s fiancé was black and of Jamaican descent, and that the couple had a five-year-old son together. Despite that awareness, a 2010 Finding of Probable Cause issued by the Division noted, State investigators found sufficient evidence that Lin was subjected -– typically by Buckley -- to unlawful workplace discrimination in the form of slurs aimed at African-Americans and, on at least one occasion, a remark directed at her that was both racially discriminatory and sexually harassing.
Shi-Juan Lin worked at Dane Construction until June 13, 2008, when she resigned without another job in place. Lin told investigators she could no longer stand the hostile work environment, which was not confined solely to racist remarks. She described one occasion in which her employer commented appreciatively on the way her jeans fit with respect to a particular part of her “oriental” anatomy. Buckley denied making the remark -- he claimed it was made by an unidentified worker who may not have understood the comment was inappropriate -- and said he later rebuked the worker.
In pursuing her formal complaint through the Division on Civil Rights, Lin alleged not only race-based and sexual harassment, but constructive discharge – essentially, loss of employment through a work environment so hostile that it left her no choice but to resign. An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) who presided at a two-day hearing on the case ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove Lin had been subjected to either a hostile work environment or constructive discharge, mainly due to the fact that Lin was Asian, and not herself black.
Director Sashihara, however, determined the ALJ had applied the wrong standard and subsequently reversed the ALJ’s ruling in a Final Decision issued in May 2013. He found that Lin was the “functional equivalent” of the protected group targeted by Buckley because of her circumstances.
Dane Construction then appealed to the Appellate Division, which affirmed Director Sashihara’s decision in a 28-page opinion issued March 17.