A female shipyard welder who accused her employer of sexual harassment has won a groundbreaking ruling that posting pictures of nude and partly nude women is a form of sexual harassment.
While rulings in other cases have found that pornographic pictures may contribute to an atmosphere of sexual harassment, the new decision is thought to be the first finding that such pictures are, in and of themselves, harassment.
The judge, Howell Melton, of Federal District Court in Jacksonville, Fla., found on Friday that Jacksonville Shipyards Inc. and two of its employees were directly liable for the harassment. He rejected what he called the company’s “ostrich defense” that it was unaware of many of the complaints made by the plaintiff, Lois Robinson.
Judge Melton said the shipyard, where Ms. Robinson has worked since 1977, maintained a boys’ club atmosphere with an unrelenting “visual assault on the sensibilities of female workers,” including pinup calendars and close-ups of women’s genitals posted on the walls. He said the sexualized atmosphere of the workplace had worked to keep women out of the shipyard. New Policy Is Ordered
