Busboys Sue Male Boss For Making Unwanted Sexual Advances

NEW YORK - Three busboys and other staff at an upscale Italian eatery in midtown said their supervisor molested them between orders of pricey pasta, a federal lawsuit claims.
Busboy Moises Pastor said he was just 15 years old when Oscar Velandia, a boss at Remi on E. 53rd St., started grabbing his groin and making unwanted sexual advances, the lawsuit filed Friday in Manhattan federal court claims.
Pastor, who is now 18, said Velandia turned the restaurant tip pool into a sex-for-cash system, demanding Pastor allow him to perform oral sex on him when he wanted an advance, the suit says.
Another busboy, Franciso Sotarriba, said Velandia never eased up on his sexual come-ons or grabbing him even after Sotarriba refused his boss' demands for sex, the suit says.
Arturo Caravantes, a 16-year employee of the restaurant, claimed he was fired in August 2008 after he tried to organize his fellow workers.
Caravantes said he feared he would lose his job if he didn't give in to Velandia's chronic demands for oral sex.
from The New York Daily News

Harassment Suits Name 1st Female Fire Chief

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - Bonnie Bleskachek knows what discrimination feels like.
After she joined the Minneapolis Fire Department years ago, male firefighters would leave the room whenever she walked in, a union official hurled an anti-gay slur at her because she is a lesbian, and a male co-worker hit her in the head with a soda can, according to her lawyer.
Bleskachek endured, becoming the city's first female fire chief and the only openly gay fire chief of a major U.S. city.
But now, two years after ascending to the top job, Bleskachek is the one who stands accused of harassing women.
The 43-year-old chief is on leave as the city conducts an internal investigation amid lawsuits from three female firefighters. Also, a city investigation found evidence that the department gave preferential treatment to lesbians or those who socialize with them.
Bleskachek declined to be interviewed. Her attorney, Jerry Burg, disputed the allegations.
The lawsuits paint a picture of a woman who let her love life influence her personnel decisions in this city of about 390,000.
In one lawsuit, firefighter Kristina Lemon claims Bleskachek pursued a sexual relationship with her and that when Lemon rebuffed her Bleskachek denied her training and advancement opportunities.
The two other lawsuits center on a test for promotion to battalion chief that was suspended and eventually canceled.
from The Houston Chronicle