Baltimore County to pay women employees $275K to settle complaint relating to nude photos

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Baltimore County will pay 11 women employees of its fire department $275,000 to settle a federal complaint that they were subjected to a hostile work environment, federal and county officials announced Tuesday.

The Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland said the agreement resolves a complaint that the Baltimore County Fire Department violated Title VII by subjecting female employees to a hostile work environment based on their sex.

The settlement was announced by U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski.

According to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court, several female employees were subjected to a hostile work environment when a male coworker distributed nude and inappropriate photographs of female employees to other coworkers, solicited such photographs from coworkers, and posted the photographs on a social media site. The complaint further alleges that BCFD failed to take prompt and appropriate actions to correct the ongoing hostile work environment.

Under the terms of the settlement, the county will also develop and implement a DOJ-approved revised fair practices policy and complaint investigation process, according to the county. The consent decree requires the department to provide annual training on these subjects for all employees and to administer a workplace climate survey plan to gauge employees’ views.

“Every workplace should foster respect and dignity for all employees, period,” Barron said. “Our mission to protect civil rights extends to sexual harassment and employers should be on notice that we will vigorously enforce the laws. We are pleased that Baltimore County has agreed to take comprehensive steps to ensure that their employees feel safe, respected, and valued at their workplace.”

“All employees have a fundamental right to be free from harassment of any kind in the workplace,” Olszewski said.

The case stems from a charge of discrimination filed by a commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Baltimore office. The commission investigated the charge and found reasonable cause that the fire department violated Title VII. After unsuccessful conciliation efforts, the EEOC referred the charge to the Department of Justice.