Inside Redlands-Memos




















Inside Redlands is posted monthly by the Office of Public Relations. Submissions can be sent to Monique Henderson. Deadlines for submissions are the second Monday of each month. Call (909) 335-5228 for more information.

To: Campus Community
From: EEO Office
Date: April 5, 2002
Subject: 2.2 Million Dollars Buys A Whole Bunch of Steaks

The EEOC recently sued Outback Steak house alleging "gender based pay discrimination and unlawful retaliation" and prevailed at the following rates: 2.1 million dollars in punitive damages, $64,000 in back wages, and $50,000 in compensatory damages for emotional pain and suffering.

In February 1995, Dena Zechella was hired by Outback Steakhouse as a Site Development Assistant in its Construction Department located in Tampa, Florida. The company assigned her duties to assist the department with the acquisition and development of approximately 100 new restaurant sites annually throughout the nation.

In November 1996, Outback hired a male Site Development Assistant to perform the same job functions as Zechella. Zechella was asked to train the new employee. In the course of training the employee, Zechella discovered that Outback had hired the new, less experienced male employee at twice her annual salary. Upon discovery, Zechella filed a complaint with Outback's corporate office.

Upon receiving the complaint, Outback directed that the male co-worker be assigned Ms. Zechella's major job tasks, and proceeded to move her to a clerical job. After a second complaint, Outback fired Ms. Zechella and refused to provide her with her last paycheck until she would agree to sign a release removing Outback from any liability. She declined to sign any release, and was never provided with her final paycheck.

Ms. Zechella filed a complaint with the EEOC. The EEOC found for Ms. Zechella and attempted to work with Outback through mediation. Outback refused to participate in mediation claiming that they were "guilty of nothing". EEOC subsequently filed a federal suit on behalf of Ms. Zechella.

The jury in the U. S. District Court found for Ms. Zechella with a damage award totaling 2.2 million dollars. Though the jury will probably be required to scale down the damage finding to adhere to the $300,000 statutory cap on compensatory damages, the finding in this case sends a clear message that the EEOC will not tolerate sex discrimination and retaliatory action on the part of employers.

When wage differentials show significant differences favoring one gender over another, an employer must be able to demonstrate that the differences are a direct result of one of the following legitimate causes: Seniority, merit, quantity or quality of production, or a factor other than sex or gender (Equal Pay Act of 1963, 29 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 1620). Failure to do so may result in a practice that equates to sex discrimination.

To: Campus Community
From: Help Desk
Date: April 22, 2002
Subject: Virus Alert

There is virus on campus called Klez.H, aliases include: Worm.Klez.H, W32/Klez.H, Klez.K, and Klez.G. The virus sends itself as a virus removal tool.

As always, if you suspect a virus on your computer or within your e-mail, please do the following:

Action: Do not open the file. Delete the file immediately. Please continue to update your anti-virus. Call the Help Desk at x4357 if you have any problems.

Below is a full description of the Klez family virus.

This worm searches the Windows address book, the ICQ database, and local files for email addresses. The worm sends an email message to these addresses with itself as an attachment. The worm contains its own SMTP engine and attempts to guess at available SMTP servers.

The subject line, message bodies, and attachment file names are random. The >From address is randomly-chosen from email addresses that the worm finds on the infected computer. As a result, the email message would have 2 attachments, the first being the worm and the second being the randomly-selected file.

The email message that this worms sends is composed of "random" strings. The subject can be one of the following:

The random word will be one of the following:

The body of the email message is random.

If the message is opened in an unpatched version of Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, the attachment may be automatically executed. Information about this vulnerability and a patch are available at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-020.asp

To: Campus Community
From: EEO Office
Date: May 1, 2002
Subject: When Math and Accounting Collide: Improper Action = Liability of $30,000,000.00 + $550,000

Roger Misiolek was employed with Ralphs supermarket chain as the Director of a regional store location. Misiolek began to target six females in his store by making sexually explicit comments about their anatomy and asking if they "imagined that he was well endowed" among other things. The female employees (four cashiers, an accountant, and a bakery department manager) approached Misiolek to request that he cease his harassing behavior.

Misiolek responded that he had no idea what they were talking about, that they had "wild imaginations concerning him", that they were "delusional" and that they needed to leave his office immediately. Subsequently, Misiolek would enter the work areas of the female employees, and proceed to throw things at the females (telephones, shopping carts, etc.) as they were attempting to work.

The six female employees contacted the Regional Director at Ralphs to register a complaint of violence in the workplace and sexual harassment. Ralphs Regional Director failed to notify the Human Resources Department, he did not notify the authorities at Headquarters, and he failed to conduct an investigation into the complaints though they were strictly forbidden by written policy. Instead, he responded that the violence was good because the female employees no longer had to endure sexually explicit statements. The Regional Director offered to transfer any of the females should they "not be happy where they were."

The females sued for sexual harassment and violence in the workplace. The attorney for the female employees stated, "Ralphs knew what was happening but chose not to take any effective action. All they would do was transfer the victims away."

The jury agreed and awarded each of the female employees $550,000 in "losses and suffering" and $5,000,000 in punitive damages (over $30 million dollars in damages). The damage award against Ralphs represents the largest sexual harassment jury verdict in U.S. History, although other companies have paid more to settle claims (Mitsubishi $34 million and Luckys $107 million).

The Jury Foreman in the case told the LA Times, "Ralphs could have stopped this at any time along the way. That's why they are being punished. They chose to ignore it. We recommended $220,000,000 in damages but the judge would not allow it."

To: Campus Community
From: Phillip Doolittle, Vice President for Finance & Administration
Date: May 1, 2002
Subject: Facilities Management

Please be advised that effective May 1, 2002, the Physical Plant department will be renamed, Facilities Management.

The re-designation of Physical Plant to Facilities Management highlights and helps to clarify the important mission of this campus organization which has primary responsibility for day-to-day maintenance, repair and alteration to buildings and grounds as well as supporting campus utility infrastructure. This name change, which many other independent and public institutions are also implementing, better describes the broad range of facility-related issues and activities which the department addresses, including the planning and execution of facility improvement and upgrade projects, facility space utilization analysis, inter-campus moves, transportation functions, and energy management matters.

Questions regarding this name change can be addressed to either Fred Weck, Director of Facilities Management or me at phillip_doolittle@redlands.edu.

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