Duane Reade Proves Fertile Ground for Harassment Payout

It sounds like one bad apple really spoiled the barrel at Duane Reade...to the tune of $240,000! City Room reports that the company today settled a lawsuit brought on by the federal Equal Employment Commission for "a pattern of sexual harassment and retaliation," but it sounds like it all stems from actions taking place at one Bronx location. The commission released a statement saying, “The store manager, Madiaw Diaw, frequently made vulgar remarks about women’s private parts, sexually propositioned female employees, made lewd comments about their pregnancies and bodies, assigned unfavorable job duties to pregnant employees and repeatedly grabbed female employees, including grabbing their buttocks." Duane Reade said that they will instill new training policies, possibly starting with the trick question, "Aren't pregnant women just the laziest?" All of this begs the question if this whole mess could have been avoided if the drug chain was a little more careful about stocking up on some of their OTC offerings.