Bullying is Legal: A Survivor's Story by Dominic Richardson - HTML preview

Introduction

I want to share this book with the public to place emphasis on the untold story of a survivor of bullying and discrimination in the workplace. Due to a confidentiality agreement signed outside of court between the two parties, I can not reveal the identities of the Complainant, employer or any individual employees involved in the matter. However, it is within the Complainant’s legal rights to discuss the matter in so far as the allegations are not tied to the particular employer, which would give the company the legal right to sue the Complainant for damages in court.

This is the nature of the system in which we live. Over the last year, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing the Complainant and observing the legal documents involved in the matter. I gathered all of the information from the Complainant, masked the identities of the parties involved, and made it available for the public so that the world can learn how bullying and discrimination affected this person’s life.

It is no secret that many people in society experience bullying and discrimination in places of employment and public accommodations. These people often feel powerless to stop what is happening to them, and they frequently find themselves in expensive legal battles and as victims of wrongful termination.

The Complainant in this matter was the victim of several offenses, both illegal and those without legal protection. The Complainant was wrongfully terminated after submitting a discrimination complainant to the Human Resources department, subjected to intrusive forms of discrimination based on sex and race, and was systematically bullied in the workplace by his co-workers over the period of a year.

The Complainant worked at a Fortune 500 company, one of the most successful businesses in the United States. He made a good faith effort to inform the Human Resources department of illegal activity by his co-workers and was terminated in retaliation, which is an illegal act by both state and federal law.

Since the victim cannot share his own story due to the confidentiality agreement, I am happy to share it with the entire world to shine light on situations like these. I sincerely hope that after reading what happened to the Complainant, that you will share this story in the hopes of putting a stop to bullying and discrimination in our society.

While there are laws on the books protecting people from discrimination, there are virtually none protecting them from bullying, particularly in the workplace. In many circumstances, people can be subjected to physical and verbal abuse and have no way to protect themselves if the actions do not fall under a state or federal “protected” category of discrimination: age, race, color, sex, religion, disability and additional classifications in some jurisdictions.

A discrimination complaint was dually filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the equivalent state agency. The EEOC assigned the state agency to handle the matter. Most of my conversations with the Complainant were about the documents he provided to the state agency. He provided a lengthy document that outlines all the examples of bullying and discrimination. The information he provided will be available to the public in the chapters of this book.