Phoenix-area pet store owes $340k in sexual harassment settlement

A lawsuit stated that some of the pet store’s female employees resigned over the harassment’s effect on them amid the company’s inaction. 

A Valley pet store must pay $340,000 after settling a lawsuit that claimed the business failed to stop male employees from sexually harassing female employees. 

According to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency that filed the lawsuit, a male manager at Bark If You’re Dirty’s Phoenix store and a male employee at the company’s Scottsdale store made inappropriate sexual comments about female workers and customers, touched female employees without consent, sexually propositioned female employees, and showed female employees naked photos. 

The agency said female employees reported the harassment to management multiple times over a few years, and some resigned over the harassment’s effect on them and the company’s inaction. 

The lawsuit also alleged Bark If You’re Dirty, which was formerly known as Wag N’ Wash, fired some female employees who made complaints. 

In addition to paying the $340,000, the company must hire a consultant to train workers on employment discrimination law and review its policies around sexual harassment. The business also agreed not to rehire the employees responsible for the harassment. 

“Sexual harassment in any workplace, no matter how casual or formal the working environment, is illegal and violates federal civil rights law,” regional attorney Mary Jo O’Neill of the EEOC’s Phoenix District Office said in a press release. “Employers have a legal duty to stop, prevent, investigate, and eliminate any and all sexual harassment.”