Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 20, 1993 TAG: 9306200045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"It was just too much to take," she told an examiner with the Virginia Employment Commission.
"Having to be all smiley and happy in front of the customers and really, half the time I was in the bathroom crying because of everything that was going on."
Troutt has filed a federal sexual harassment lawsuit against John Peroulas, the owner of Charcoal Steak House on Williamson Road.
Her attorney says up to 10 other waitresses will support Troutt's claims that the harassment escalated from unwanted stares and sexual comments to actual touching and grabbing.
While that case creeps through court, Troutt has been waging another legal fight against the VEC, which ruled last year she did not have "good cause" to leave her job.
Even though it assumed the sexual harassment allegations to be true, the VEC ruled that Troutt was not eligible to collect unemployment benefits.
Last week, a judge reversed the VEC's decision after Troutt appealed her case to Roanoke Circuit Court.
Troutt's attorney, Mary Wheeling of Client Centered Legal Services of Southwest Virginia, said the case is important for other women who put up with sexual harassment just to keep their jobs - until, like Troutt did, they reach a breaking point.
Had Judge Diane Strickland not reversed the VEC's ruling, Wheeling said, women might be even more reluctant to complain about harassment if it meant losing not just their paychecks but potential unemployment checks as well.
Wheeling called the VEC's ruling "horrendous."
"It was accepted by the commission as fact that the sexual harassment took place," she said. "But they were saying that because she didn't quit right away, she lost her right to quit and accepted this as part of her employment."
The dispute is thought to be the first Virginia case that deals with the issue of whether an employee should endure sexual harassment instead of quitting immediately after trying to resolve the problem.
Patricia Quillen, an assistant attorney general who represented the VEC, declined to comment on the case.
Although Peroulas was not directly involved in the lawsuit against the VEC, he plans to fight Troutt's $2 million sexual harassment lawsuit when it goes to federal court next month.
"There's nothing to it," he said. Peroulas said the allegation didn't come up until after Troutt quit her job and was denied unemployment benefits.
"She's just out to get some money," he said. "There's no truth to it."
In March 1989, Troutt took a waitressing job at Charcoal Steak House that paid $2.13 an hour plus tips.
According to her lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, it wasn't long before Peroulas began to ask her to have drinks with him after the restaurant closed.
The lawsuit listed a line-by-line list of Peroulas' lines:
"You sure are pretty" . . . "Me and you ought to get together some time" . . . "I can make you feel better than anybody" . . . "You have to; you just know you have to stay here with me."
The lawsuit says that when Troutt asked him to stop, Peroulas replied: "I know you really like it, that's why I keep doing it."
Terry Grimes, a Roanoke lawyer who represents Troutt in the sexual harassment lawsuit, says up to 10 employees at Charcoal Steak House have agreed to testify that they either observed the harassment or experienced it themselves.
The waitresses say the harassment did not stop with unwanted stares and sleazy comments; Peroulas is also accused of patting Troutt on the buttocks and brushing his hand against her breasts.
Contacted last week, Peroulas declined to talk about the allegations in detail. But in an affidavit filed in federal court, he cited an incident several months before Troutt quit in May 1991.
Peroulas said Troutt's boyfriend began to regularly call the restaurant and became abusive when told she could not come to the telephone.
After confronting Troutt about the problem, Peroulas said in the affidavit, "she became noticeably distant to me."
After Troutt quit her job and moved back to her parent's home in Grundy, she applied for unemployment benefits.
Under Virginia law, someone who quits a job can receive benefits only if he or she leaves for good cause.
After a local examiner denied her claim, Troutt appealed to the VEC in Richmond. The VEC upheld an earlier ruling that Troutt's decision to quit work had more to do with her breaking up with a boyfriend than with the sexual harassment.
The VEC cited testimony that showed Peroulas' advances slowed down after he overheard Troutt discussing her complaints with another employee.
"Thus, the commission can put no credence in the contention that the sexual harassment which, for all practical purposes, ceased five months before her separation, had played any significant role in [Troutt's] decision to voluntarily quit," the commission stated in a written decision.
Wheeling, however, said the harassment might have slowed down but it never stopped until the day Troutt quit her job.
At a hearing Wednesday, Strickland ruled that Troutt had met a two-part test for showing good cause to quit: that she had a legitimate dispute at work, and that she took all reasonable steps to resolve it before leaving.
"We would hope this will encourage other people to complain," Wheeling said. "We know that many times employees have to put up with a situation that makes them very uncomfortable, just so they can get their next paycheck."
by CNB