Fitness Club Manager Sued for Bra-Snapping Sexual Harassment

Five female employees at Battery Park Swim and Fitness say they were fired after complaining to human resources about a manager who ran the place like his own personal frat house. A lawsuit filed by two of the former employees, membership consultant Courtney McCallion and trainer/receptionist Maggie Alexander, contends that manager David Anglin was usually about as mature as Rodney Dangerfield on his fifth martini during their employ at the gym, and his harassment included such timeless flirtation gambits as bra-strap snapping and jokes about their cleavage.

"Giving away the farm, are we?" Anglin quipped while snapping McCallion's bra strap, according to court papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court. His offers of "a full body massage" were also declined by the women, who charge that Anglin "regaled the staff with sophomoric double entendres and sexualized and misogynistic nicknames." And their lawyer Jack Tucker says that when they complained to the human resources director, they were told that if they couldn't find a way to "get along" with Anglin's Benny Hill routine, they'd be terminated. Then they were subsequently let go, one by one, over the course of several months, according to the suit.

Alexander tells the Daily News, "All we were asking for was that he would be accountable. After that I no longer felt valued as an employee. I was just another girl for him to ogle and harass." Apparently, Anglin is still employed there, and Tucker says, "The manager of the club is a jerk, but that's not really a surprise. What is a surprise and what is remarkable and troubling is that most people would expect that in 2009 in New York City that management would do something about it." But management did try to do something—according to the Post, they tried to force the women to sign statements denying they'd been harassed!