She didn’t go quietly: battling an agency in sexual harassment case

Posted in Sexual Harassment on December 6, 2016

Where the subject of sexual harassment in the federal realm and an employer’s alleged retaliatory response to claims based on that illegality are concerned, no agency seems more appropriate for close scrutiny that the Transportation Security Administration.

Indeed, the agency’s track record on that subject matter seems indisputably troubled and problematic. According to a recent Washington Post report, one independent agency that looks into retaliation claims states that it has received 121 complaints regarding the TSA this year.

And then there’s this: A relevant U.S. House of Representatives committee stated earlier this year that the TSA is marked by “a chilling culture of intimidation and retaliation.”

One critic who represents complainants in sexual discrimination and whistleblower retaliation lawsuits against theTSA is more blunt: “If you want to be a bully and beat your chest,” she says, “this is the agency where you want to work in management.”

One ex-Army noncommissioned officer and decorated (Bronze Star) female veteran who worked for the TSA during a probationary period and was fired just prior to the end of her term has put a strong and adverse spotlight on the agency pursuant to her filing of a sexual harassment complaint with the EEOC. She has followed that up with a high-profile website chronicling an alleged troubling work culture at the TSA and routine protesting on public streets nearby the agency.

One TSA principal who testified earlier this year before Congress confirmed the toxic agency environment that the former veteran insists is standard throughout the TSA.

“This is more than just grab-assing or boys-being-boys,” he told congressional members.

“This is a cultural problem.”